Team HP
by Sincerely V
Summary: After A's disappearance, there are still a lot of dangers to the girls and it requires a team effort to prevent any further damage. Follows current plot with a few twists. Explores different friendships and shows a different perspective of season 5. Bad summary, good story. Paily.
1. Team HP

A/N So I'm writing another story. This one will be a little bit longer than the last one. I can't stand how many people hate Paige and so these stories are ways I see that she can redeem herself (even though I don't think she needs to). This takes place immediately after Paige leave Emily's house in 5x04.

**Paige's POV**

She walked away from Emily's house forcing herself not to look back. She honestly couldn't understand why Emily didn't see that Ali once really hurt people. Of course people are going to be upset when she comes back. She unlocked her car and got in. she reached across the arm rest and pulled her phone from her bag. She knew that Emily wasn't going to take her warning seriously. She thought that Paige was only there because of their failing relationship. For once, Paige wasn't thinking about them as a couple. She just wanted to make sure no one got hurt, even Ali. She dialed his number and waited for the other person to pick up. The phone kept ringing with no response until at the final ring, an annoyed voice responded.

"Hello?"

"Lucas, it's Paige can we meet up, please?" This was going to come back to haunt her but she knew something had to be done.

"Paige it's late and I really don't think it is a good idea for me to be talking to you." She didn't realize how fast Mona could spread the news of her quitting the new A Team.

"I need five minutes of your time. I'll swing by your house, no one will see us." There was a long pause on the other end.

"Five minutes McCullers." He hung up the phone. Paige breathed in heavily and started her car. She made it to his street rather quickly and parked a few houses away. She exchanged her jacket for a shark's hoodie. She threw the hood up and made her way down the road. Fifty feet from the house, she would see a figure sitting on a porch swing. She closed the remaining distance and walked on to the porch.

"Thank you for meeting me." She said sincerely.

"With you I don't think there is much of a choice." He got up and ushered her into the house both of them looking behind them before they entered. He offered her a seat on a worn out flowery couch but she insisted on standing. He sat down, waiting for her to start the conversation. She paced back in forth not really knowing how to start. She knew Lucas wasn't going to buy into anything she had to say but she knew she had to try.

"Lucas I need to know what Mona has planned for Ali." The look on his face made it seem like he knew this is where the conversation was going.

"Ali isn't as innocent as the news says Paige. That stuff about being kidnapped isn't even true."

"I know." He was slightly taken a back.

"If you knew, why are you so eager to help her?" That was the same question she had been asking herself all evening. Why would she help a person who is jeopardizing everything she had built the past two years?

"Believe me when I say, the reality of the situation is even worse than you can imagine. Ali hurt me too but we can't stoop to her level. What does that say about us? We need to give her a chance to prove that she isn't the same person that went missing." He shook his head, trying to process Paige's argument.

"How can you be so forgiving?"

"Because, I refuse to become the thing that I used to be afraid of. If you go through with this, you become Allison. You become a torturer. Can you live with yourself like that?" He shook his head no.

"Mona is going to go through with all of this whether or not we are with her or not." He argued.

"That's why I need your help. She knows that I love Emily too much to hurt her again so she will watch my every move if I join her. You, on the other hand, are her right hand man. She trusts you because she thinks that you are like her. But I know you're not. You are kind and compassionate. You are better than her, Lucas." She could see the wheels spinning in his head. Before he could say an answer, Paige continued her argument.

"For once, don't let other people make choices for you. For the first time in your life, you have the chance to decide for yourself how people are going to see you. Do you want them to talk about you as the person who got petty revenge on a playground bully or are they going to talk about the kid who was brave enough to stand up so no one has to be bullied again? It's your choice."

"How does Emily ever say no to you with speeches like that?" They both laughed.

"So what do you say, want to be Team HP?"

"Team HP?"

"Hermie and Pigskin." He got visibly uncomfortable at his former moniker.

"A wise person once said, fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself."

"Thank you Hermione. I guess it'll work." A smile spread on Paige's face at the realization of what his comment meant.

"So…"

"So, I'm going to help you but if Mona finds out you're going to be a dead little pigskin. What do you need to know?"

"Everything they have planned so far, I mean everything." He pointed to the couch across from him.

"You might want to sit down; this is going to take more than five minutes."

Paige left Lucas's house right before midnight. The complexity to which Mona had planned every move was incredible. She had mapped out every route Ali would take, she knew what classes she was in, and she even planned for what table she would sit at at lunch. Paige wrote down as many notes as she could, trying to figure out the best way to prevent the onslaught of torture Ali was about to be exposed to. It didn't stop there, though. They had a whole plan for her friends too. Sitting in her car, Paige didn't know where to begin. If she went to Emily's house and gave her the list, then Mona would know and she would never get any more information. If she called her and warned her, Emily would tell the other girls and Mona would probably over hear them and she would be back to square one again. There had to be away to help them, without being connected to it. A scary idea entered her head, and she tried to get rid of it but it made perfect sense. She started her car and drove to the nearest gas station that was still open. She grabbed her wallet and went in trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. She was scanning the shelves looking for the item but it wasn't anywhere to be found. When she turned around, she ran into clerk.

"Can I help you find something sweet heart?" He gave her a crooked grin.

"Yeah, I broke my phone and I have a really important project I'm working on and need to get a hold of the people in my group. Do you have any prepaid phones?" She audibly gulped.

"Yes ma'am. These things seem to sell out like crazy around here but I got a few left." He led the way to a rack of cheap flip phones with charge cards. She picked the cheapest one with an unlimited texting card. She followed the clerk to the register and he rang her up.

"Twent five-seventy." She went to pull out her card but decided on a different route. She counted the cash in her wallet and was lucky to have thirty bucks. She gave it to him and took the phone. When she got to her car, she ripped open the packaging and read the instructions. She loaded the texting card onto the phone and tried it out. She sent a message to herself using the block code she knew about: _Testing 1.2.3._ A few seconds later, her phone lit up. The message appeared with the name reading "Blocked Number." This is a very bad idea, she thought to herself. She set the phone on the dashboard and took a few deep breaths. She started the car and made her way home, suddenly excited about the next day.

TBC

Hit me up on suggestions for what kind of ways they are planning on getting back at Ali. I have a few ideas but more are always welcome.


	2. Newts

A/N So I'm writing another story. This one will be a little bit longer than the last one. I can't stand how many people hate Paige and so these stories are ways I see that she can redeem herself (even though I don't think she needs to). This takes place immediately after Paige leave Emily's house in 5x04.

**Paige's POV**

Paige woke up at 4 in the morning with a pressing problem. She had all the girls' numbers, but not Ali's. She sat in bed wondering how she was going to get it in time for today's plans. She couldn't go back to sleep so she decided to get ready and figure the day out. She knew exactly what Mona was going to do for Ali's first day back and it wasn't going to be hard to deflect. Well, that is if she got her number. She looked over at her clock and it read 6:30. She wondered what time the Dilaurentis's got up. Picking up the phone book, she scanned through it for the correct number. She honestly had no idea whether or not it was the same but it was worth a shot. She dialed in the numbers and waited. Much like the night before, the dial tone buzzed in her ear until the last ring.

"Dilaurentis residence." She was lucky she got Mr. D. Suddenly aware she needed to speak, Paige put on her best adult voice.

"Hello, Mr. Dilaurentis. I am Kathy from Rosewood High School."

"Hi Kathy, how can I help you?" He bought it thus far.

"We recently established a new policy where we have the student's cell phone numbers on record for emergencies. However, with your daughter returning today we don't have her number. Does she have a cell phone, sir?" Paige was rather satisfied with the lie she had come up with. It was either this or they had been getting prank calls at the school and wanted to compare numbers.

"Yes, Ali has a phone. Just give me a second and I'll get you that number." Paige could hear rustling in the background like he was looking for his phone. Moments later he got back on the line and read off her number. She quickly wrote it down and committed it to memory.

"Is that all?"

"Yes thank you, and we hope she has a good first day back at school." She quickly hung up the phone and starred down at the paper with 10 digits scrawled across it. She had really gotten her number, which meant she was actually going through with this crazy plan. Every time she weighed the pros and cons of this she kept on getting more cons. Especially in the department of "Allison formerly making her life a living hell". But then she would start to think about Emily. If Emily thought Ali had a miraculous come to Jesus, then Paige was going to believe it too. No matter what, Paige wasn't going to help Mona. She knew what it was like to become something else for revenge. She had bullied Emily because Emily was the embodiment of everything she had ever wanted but couldn't have because of Allison. The day she came out was the best day of her life. It made her realize that people's words don't define you unless you let them. She never wanted to go back into the closet and getting back at Ali felt like three steps in the wrong direction.

She looked at the clock and realized that time was quickly passing by. It was now seven and school started at 8. She needed to get there before anyone to make sure she could direct today's activities. Jumping from the kitchen table, she grabbed her bags and keys and headed to the car.

**Ali POV**

Ali spent multiple hours trying to pick out what to wear. Did she want to look innocent or fierce, sporty or chic, weak or powerful? Her outfit had the potential to set the mood of the rest of her time at Rosewood High. The whole time she was gone, she never really had the option of what to wear. It was more of what was the most incognito and cheap. Now, she had a closet full of beautiful clothes, begging to be worn. She decided on a royal blue dress with a light blue sweater. Dresses were innocent and powerful, she thought. She walked down the stairs and her father had made her waffles. She really wasn't hungry but she ate one to be polite.

"We are going to leave in a few minutes, if that's alright."

"Don't worry about it dad, Emily is actually going to pick me up." He didn't like that idea. He wanted to make sure everything went smoothly today. If he could pull it off, he would spend the whole day at school with her.

"Honey are you sure?" Before he could answer, a honk came from out front. Ali hopped off the bar stool and gave her father a peck on the cheek.

"By love you." She grabbed her purse and headed out the front door. The heels she had chosen weren't really efficient for walking down stairs so she took her time getting to Emily's car. Emily was beaming from ear to ear and even got out of the car to open the door.

"Your carriage my lady." This didn't illicit much of a response from Allison. Emily brushed it off and got in the car to begin the short trip to school. The silence was becoming awkward so Emily turned on the radio. Allison's purse buzzed and she dug through it to find her phone. As soon as she saw the blocked number, her body became tense.

"Who is it?" Emily tried to read over her shoulder but was unsuccessful.

"Just my dad telling me to have a good day" she lied. She turned the phone closer to her and read the cryptic message: _Today is your lucky day. Follow my lead and you'll get through all of this but for both our safety, this is between you and me-HP._ Allison didn't know what to think of her new ally. What did HP stand for, she thought. No one she knew had those initials. She honestly couldn't think of anyone with a first name starting with an "H" besides Hanna. She desperately wanted to tell Emily but for once she was going to trust the unknown.

Emily pulled into her parking spot when Allison's phone buzzed again.

"You're popular this morning." Allison smiled and shrugged. She looked down at the message. _Don't take the front entrance. Go through the natatorium, Emily knows the way-HP._

"Hey Em, can we go through the natatorium? I haven't been through there in a long time." Emily gave her a confused look but agreed. Around the corner, Paige could see them following the route she put them on. Mona's first plan was to confront Ali as soon as she got there in front of the school. Lucas said it was so she could display her dominance in front of everyone. The other way would avoid everyone and would spit them out right by Emily's locker. Paige looked down at her watch and realized she needed to get to her locker before the other girls passed her.

Allison continued to look at her phone waiting for the next direction. She had no idea if this person was good or bad or what any of it meant but she had no reason not to trust them. Emily noticed that she was distracted and tried to strike up a conversation.

"So why did you want to go this way?" Ali was taken out of her own little world.

"I just love the pool. You were such a great swimmer."

"'Was' being the operative word there." Allison didn't mean to make Emily upset.

"Is there anything you can do?" Her options weren't completely terrible but none would offer a quick solution.

"I have seen a therapist and a surgeon but nothing looks promising. Actually, Paige got me in contact with an amazing coach who is willing to work with me if I get my shoulder fixed." It still shocked Allison that Paige and Emily were ever a thing. It didn't go unnoticed the affect Paige's name had on Allison.

"You know we haven't really talked about my relationship with Paige." Emily had been avoiding this conversation since the second Ali walked back in to her life.

"I don't think there is anything to talk about. You went out with ol' Pig Skin and not you're done."

"Ali!"

"Come on Em, it was a joke." Allison didn't realize how upset Emily would get over Paige's nickname.

"Well, it's not funny. You need to be careful about what you say. People aren't welcoming you here with balloons and flowers."

"What are you talking about?"

"Mona is up to something and it all has to do with you. Just watch your back, okay?" Allison nodded as they made their way into the hallway. As they changed halls, Allison came face to face with the aforementioned girl. Paige was standing by her locker. She gave in awkward wave to Emily and an even more awkward head nod to Allison. Allison thought she was still weird but responded with a smile. Paige was definitely different from when she left but there was something that Allison still didn't like about her. Maybe it was jealousy, she thought. Paige had no more secrets Ali could exploit and she was jealous of that freedom.

Paige reached her hand into her locker and pressed send on the message she had already typed out. Seconds later, she could hear the vibration coming from Ali's phone as she made her way down the hallway. At least she knew she was getting them. She had sent a warning about her locker. The twins had stuck dirt in her new locker and Paige hadn't had a chance to get it out yet.

Allison reached for her phone and read the next message. _Don't open your locker. Go to your first class but avoid the history hallway-HP. _They walked up to her new locker.

"So they said this one is yours. Do you want me to open it for you? They're new in this hallway and can be a bit tricky." Emily had already started to turn the dial.

"No." Ali quickly put her hands on Emily's, lowering them from the door. Emily was distracted by the contact but Allison could see dirt particles seeping from the crack.

"I don't have anything to put in there yet, so I am going to just go on to class. Maybe you can help me later." She turned and left Emily where she was. She pulled out her phone again and tried calling the blocked number but it wouldn't let her. Whoever it was, they had insider knowledge and she needed it. She walked to her class, very aware of all the eyes on her. Being undead really made you the center of attention. At one of the junctures in the hallways, she could go right or left, both getting her to her class in the same amount of time. The hallway on the left was mostly English and the hallway on the right was for history. HP had told her don't go down the history hallway but she wanted to see exactly what she was up against.

Paige was following close behind and saw her turn towards the history classes. She wondered how this girl survived on her own for years when she couldn't take simple directions. The kid Ali used to call Newt would be down that hallway ready for something Paige wasn't aware of. She knew she was close to being late to her own class but decided to follow anyways.

Allison made it past the first three classrooms. As she was turning the corner to make it to her own, she felt a thump on her head and before she could react something began crawling down her back. Luckily she had a dress on, because the slimy creature slivered down her leg quickly. She started shaking it off but lost her balance in her heels. She started falling backwards but before she hit the floor strong arms caught her.

"I got ya." The voice sounded familiar but she couldn't quite place it. The stranger helped her stand up straight and she regained her balance. She straightened her dress out and turned to thank her catcher but no one was there. She looked around but all she saw was the creature that had just attacked her, stationed on the wall. It was a little black and yellow newt. Looking at it sent shivers down her spine. What was the point of that, she thought. The bell rang and she knew she was going to be late to class. Her heels clicked down the hall way and she opened the door as the second bell rang. She took a seat in the back of the classroom away from the gawking students. As she sat down her phone buzzed. The teacher gave her an incredulous look, so she discreetly pulled it into sight. _Next time I'm not going to catch you. Just follow directions.-HP _She locked her phone, still bewildered by her day so far. She now had some cloaked avenger watching her and for once she felt kind of safe.

Paige was late for gym and was already breathing heavily. As soon as she caught Ali, she ran. Hopefully, the little creature incident would make her listen. As she got scolded by her teacher, she couldn't help but think she was in too deep. How long could she possibly keep this up? She looked down at the list of Team Mona's attacks. The next one was on all of the girls.

TBC


	3. Loser Mona

A/N What up welcome back. I'll be updating biweekly (hopefully) enjoy.

The rest of the day went by smoothly. There was nothing planned till that evening. At that point, Mona wanted to isolate Allison by separating the girls. Paige didn't know how to word the message to them in order for them to trust her. It seemed silly hiding behind a phone but if Mona knew she let her plan out, she would be as dead as the rest of Rosewood. She walked out of History and made her way to her locker by the natatorium. Luckily, Spencer's locker was close by and all of the girls were convened there. Spencer hadn't been at school the whole day until just then, so Paige thought they might be checking in with what was wrong with her. She reached into her locker and clicked send on her burner phone. Down the hallway, simultaneous beeps went off. From a distance, Paige could see their worried faces. She closed her locker and walked out the other way.

Allison located her phone first and unlocked it.

"Don't stray too far from the pack. There's only safety in numbers-HP" Ali looked at the other girls to make sure they all got the same message. Spencer was the first to have a response.

"Who the hell is HP? I can't deal with this today." She threw her phone in the locker without looking back.

"This isn't the first message I have gotten from them." All eyes were on Ali.

"What happened to be completely honest? How long have you been keeping this from us?" Emily demanded.

"Jeez Em, I wasn't keeping it from you, I just hadn't told you yet. I only got the first message this morning. I was going to talk about it when we met up today."

"So what did the other messages say? What do they want? Do they know about New York?"Aria was becoming manic.

"This is going to sound crazy…" They all gave her an incredulous look. "…This is going to sound kind of crazy, then. I think this person is trying to help us. This morning they told me to go in the back way of the school and I thought they were just messing with me. But then they told me not to open my locker. I didn't understand why until I went back to it after third period. Somebody had opened it and I think that there was dirt in it before. It's like they cleaned it out so it wouldn't fall all over me. And then, I was walking to class and they told me to take one way over another but I ignored them. I ended up getting attacked by some cross lizard thing and I almost fell on my face."

"Almost?" Emily asked.

"Someone caught me but when I turned around, they were gone." The girls took their own time processing this information. They had never had someone looking out for them before.

"Somehow this person knows Mona's play. It has to be someone who goes here and who wants to protect you."

"Well that narrows it down."

"Hanna!" Aria interjected.

"I'm just saying. How many people would go out of their way to protect Ali? Half of the people in the school are freshman and sophomores who don't know her and the other half are upperclassmen who are either afraid of her or us." Hanna made an excellent point for once. Allison had more people out to get her than anything else.

"I don't know then but somebody is watching out for me and I think we should listen to them."

"I don't mean to be the cynic here but why wouldn't this person just come to us? If they have to hide behind a phone then maybe they are playing us again. This has happened before." Emily was adamant about being wary of this new person. They had been burned before by a number of different people and they were supposed to be getting their lives back.

"Why don't we wait and see what happens. I think it is too early to put our eggs all in one basket." The other girls agreed with Spencer. Allison conceded as well but really thought this person was telling the truth.

"Why don't we still stay together tonight anyways" She suggested.

"I have to help my mom get settled in the hotel."

"Lucas invited Travis and I to a party at his house." Hanna followed.

"I'm going over to Jenna's house. I really need to talk to her." Allison turned to Emily, her last hope.

"I'm going to the Frozen thing tonight with Sydney and maybe Paige." She averted her eyes at that last part.

"I guess I'll see you all tomorrow then." The girls went their separate ways leaving Allison in the hallway. She looked at her phone hoping that her savior would send her some more advice, but none came.

Paige got out of the pool ad headed to the locker room. She was exhausted and ready to go home. When she reached her locker, a surprise guest was waiting for her.

"Hey Em. What's up?" She dried off her body and began squeezing the water out of her hair.

"So Sydney really wants to go to this thing tonight at the school and I was wondering if you wanted to go…as friends."

"Aren't you going to be with the girls tonight?" Paige walked past Emily to her locker to get her clothes out.

"We all actually have separate plans tonight." Paige's head shot up. Things were going just as Mona had plan.

"I just figured with today being her first day you would all be together tonight for like a girls night or something…together." Emily gave her a suspicious look.

"Why are you so concerned with what is going on with the girls?" She folded her arms, waiting for an answer.

"Come on Em, I wasn't just in a relationship with you. I was also close to all of those girls. I still worry about all of you and would never want something bad to happen."

"Even Allison?" Paige paused what she was doing. Too quick of answer would give her away but no answer at all would make Emily mad.

"Nobody should have to feel unsafe. No matter what they've done." She began to thrown on her sweat suit when Emily grabbed her arm, pulling her around.

"You are one of the bravest people I have ever known. Please don't ever forget that." Paige didn't really know where this was coming from but she relished in the brief contact between them.

"So tonight?" Emily's eyes were pleading with her. Paige wanted to give in so bad but she knew that if all the girls were on their own, something bad was going to happen.

"I really would love to but if I don't start working on some of this homework I've missed, I'm not going to graduate. Rain check?"

"Of course." Emily's voice was disappointed but accepting. She let go of Paige's arm and walked out the locker room door. As she left, Paige lightly hit herself in the face.

"You're an idiot. You are an absolute idiot." She said to herself. She threw on the rest of her clothes and grabbed her bags. Obviously, her group text wasn't very productive. She wasn't surprised that they didn't trust a stranger who doesn't identify themselves but she thought they might at least be cautious. How had they not learned that being separated made them easy to prey on? Paige made it to her car and decided for evasive action. She drove to the cul-de-sac of terror where Allison, Emily, and Spencer all lived. She parked in the alley by the trail she liked to run and waited. Lucas didn't give any specifics on what was supposed to happen tonight but he said that Mona was going to try and get Allison alone by her house. Paige looked at her watch and realized she would probably be waiting her for a while. She figured she might as well do homework so what she told Emily wasn't a complete lie.

Allison made it home but was restless. She didn't know what to do and her house made her feel uneasy. She watched out her window to see if any new cars passed by but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Finally, a familiar car pulled in across the street. She saw Emily get out and decided to go over to her house. It took her less time then she thought to be on Emily's porch. She knocked on the door and was met by a slightly surprised Emily.

"Hey, I thought we decided to just see each other tomorrow." Allison needed a reason to be invited in but didn't know what to say. She defaulted to something she had never tried before: the truth.

"I am really scared when I am by myself at home. Can I just stay here for a little bit? I know you have that thing with Paige later but please." Emily had never been able to deny Allison and she wasn't starting then. She opened the door wider and allowed her to come in. They made their way to her room and Allison made herself comfortable, sitting on her bed. She looked around in amazement at the subtle changes that had occurred throughout the years of not being in here. It had the same yellow paint and antique furniture but there were also touches that were uniquely Emily. Her swim trophies lined her dresser along with pictures of happier times.

"It is amazing how much this place has changed without actually changing." Emily gave her a confused look.

"What do you mean?" She sat down next to her, just far enough away to avoid any contact. It didn't matter anyways, because Allison got up to roam the room.

"I just mean all of it looks exactly as I remember except for these little things. Things that I was never around to see." She picked up a medal from sectionals the year before.

"Like this. I have no idea the story behind this. Was it a close race? I don't even know what stroke you were swimming." Emily recognized the medal and a smile crept on her face.

"That is actually from a relay race. It was the medley so everyone swims a different stroke. I was the freestyle. And the race was extremely close. We actually wouldn't have won it if Paige…" She stopped herself realizing her ex-girlfriend was a touchy subject. "It wasn't just me who won that is what I was saying." They could both feel the awkwardness setting in. Allison walked over to Emily's desk and replaced the medal in her hand with a picture. It was the one Aria gave Emily for her birthday of her and Paige at a swim meet. She hadn't brought herself to put it away yet.

"When I found out you started dating Paige, I couldn't believe it. I always kept some tabs on you guys and Cece told me that you two were very serious. I still think of her as pigskin. It's hard to see her as this new person that everyone thinks she is" Emily winced at Allison's nonchalant use of Paige's nickname.

"Of all the people I messed with, before Mona, she was the only one who pushed back. And I made her life hell." Allison put the photo down and turned towards Emily.

"I still don't know what you saw in her…" Emily shook her head.

"We aren't doing this again. I had enough this morning. Paige and I had a good relationship. It ended badly but I don't regret being in it with her. I loved her and she loved me even though I was constantly almost getting her killed or lying to her."

"If she's so great, then why aren't you with her?" Emily threw her hands in the air in defeat.

"Because of you. Because somehow I have convinced myself that you will one day own up to the fact that you care for me, as more than a friend. I don't know why I need that but I do. Every relationship I have been in since you left has been poisoned by self-doubt. I question everything I have with them because a part of me is holding out for you. It is really stupid though because I have had some amazing people in my life who deserve better than what I can give them. I need some kind of validation her and then I can move on." Allison was shocked by this confession. She knew she used to string Emily along but she never knew how much of a hold she had on her. If she was honest with herself, she knew there was nothing more than friendly love with Emily. She held onto Emily's love like a kid holds on to their favorite toy. She was afraid that if she let it go, then nobody would really love her. She didn't realize that she still had this power over Emily.

"Emily I can't give you any answers right now. I'm sorry if I am the reason that your relationships haven't worked out but maybe that is for the best. The only person I know is Paige, and if we are both being honest it is probably best if you aren't with her anyways. Spencer told me what happened with her when I left. She almost killed you." Emily grabbed her coat and made her way to the door.

"I can't deal with this. Stay as long as you want but I need to be away from you for a little bit."

"Go have fun with Paige then." Allison shot back.

"Paige isn't coming actually. She gave me some lame excuse because she knows that being around me means potentially being around you. She never did anything to me that hurt me as much as you hurt her. All she did was love me and in return I choose you. So, get that halo off your head and come join the rest of us in the hell you created."

Paige had seen Allison walk over to Emily's house twenty minutes before and made her way over to a neighboring porch. She knew the people in the house had moved out and were trying to sell. They obviously were the smartest people in the neighborhood. She saw as Emily stalked out of her house, looking mad as hell. I guess the princess is even pissing her closest friends off, she thought to herself. She waited patiently on the porch for another hour. When she was about to turn in, a car pulled up down the street. The engine stopped but nobody came out. Paige had a sinking feeling this was part of Mona's big plan. She pulled the hood of her sweat shirt over her head and kept a close eye on Emily's house. Another twenty minutes passed when she saw Allison walk outside the front door. As if on cue, the car fired up and began stalking behind her. Allison was obviously aware of her tail and began running in her three inch heels. Paige waited for the car to pass and began jogging behind it, trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible. They made a turn towards the old church and she waited a few moments before crossing the street. The car was left parked and turned off. She walked slowly behind it and didn't see anyone in the driver's seat. She quickly snapped a shot of the license plate and made her way to the front door. She slid on a mask she had gotten from Mardi gras years back and began searching the rectory of the church.

Allison had run up two flights of stairs into a battered room. She looked around for some kind of weapon but saw none. As her back was turned, she heard the clicking of heels slowly making their way into the room.

"Miss me?" She spun around and was face to face with an angry Mona.

"What do you want Mona?" She said through gritted teeth.

"I want you gone." This scared Allison. She knew Mona was capable of heinous things.

"What are you going to do, kill me?"

"You have hurt a lot of people and there is no way I am letting you back into my school." Mona took a few steps closer.

"I am sorry for what I did to you but I have changed. I was a kid then who needed to inflict pain on others to feel validated." She tried to make herself sound as sincere as possible.

"I don't believe you. People don't change. They are who they are and no amount of fake smiles or apologies will change that. The only way we can really be protected is if you are gone." This flipped a switch in Allison. She truly wanted to change but there was still a rage inside of her that she struggled to control.

"Listen to me, I made you Loser Mona once and I can do it again." With that, Mona slapped her across the face. Without hesitating, Allison returned the gesture leaving a large gash on Mona's face. They both looked at each other, terrified of what they knew they had the potential to become. The same rage Allison just felt was about to explode from Mona. She grabbed Allison by her sweater and pushed her back into the nearest window. The glass broke easily and Mona had the top half of Allison hanging out.

"I could end this now. Everyone would be better off without you." Allison looked into her eyes and saw that they were completely void of anything. All of the sweet, innocent decathlon Mona had been removed and was replaced by a soulless revenge demon. And what really struck a chord with Allison is that she had created this monster. Emily was right, they were all in this hell carved out by her lies and Mona was the devil.

"Please." Allison's plea was a little more than a whisper. She closed her eyes accepting her fate. She let go of her hold on Mona's hands and made a prayer to some far off God she once cared about.

Paige had come in just as Mona had pushed Allison into the window. She never thought that Mona would take it this far but she also hadn't seen what happened moments before. She ran to the window and grabbed Mona's shoulders. Before she had time to react, Paige threw her down on the floor. Mona's head made contact with a close by chair and she appeared to lose consciousness. In the process of pulling Mona away, Paige had managed to send Allison farther out the window. Allison was now screaming and holding on to the window sill for dear life. Her feet were braced on the sill but her back was now completely against the side of the house. Her arms could not grab onto anything and she was slowly losing her grip. She had no idea that someone had pulled Mona away. She thought Mona let go for her to fall.

"Grab my hand." Paige made her voice deeper as she reached over the ledge to help Allison. Allison, with her eyes still closed, blindly swiped through the air for the stranger's hand. They made contact and Paige used all of her might to pull her through the broken glass. As she did, she cut her arm all the way down the side. She winced as she brought Allison all the way into the room and to safety. Allison broke down on the floor crying.

"Thank you." Paige looked around the room but Mona was now gone. She walked into the shadows to hide herself.

"Are you okay?" she said in a still deeper voice.

"I'm fine…I can't even begin…who are you?" Paige could feel the blood dripping down her arm and she wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

"I'm just a friend." She started to make her way towards the door.

"Why are you helping me?" Allison still had no idea why anyone would go through so much trouble to protect her. Paige knew why she was doing it but she couldn't just say it was because she loved Emily. It would give her away. As she thought to herself, she realized she wasn't just doing this for Emily. She was doing it to prove something to herself.

"Because… I refuse to become the thing that I am most afraid of." Paige never thought in a million years that she would be the one willingly saving Allison. But she meant what she said, she refused to be the bully. And she also refused to sit on the sidelines when something could be done. If this ends up proving something to Emily then great but the most important thing is that it was proving something to herself. She walked out the door leaving Allison behind. When she got outside, the car was gone and hopefully so was Mona.

TBC


	4. Trust Issues

A/N: I loved the other night's episode. I am going to try to weave in as much current story line as possible and make up some of my own. I really want to see people interact who never do.

Paige ran to her car as fast as possible. She tried to contain the blood dripping down her arm but it was already soaking through her sweatshirt. When she got to her car, she reached in her swim bag and pulled out a towel. She stripped off her sweat shirt to look at the damage and was greeted by a 12 inch gash down her entire forearm. She pulled the towel around it and started her car. The cut seemed superficial and not deep so she wasn't concerned with going to the hospital. She made her way home, hoping that her over protective father still had his army worthy med kit.

Allison had called her friends as soon as the masked figure ran away. She luckily didn't have any major injuries except for a sore back that would potentially have a pretty large bruise. Her thick dress and sweater had saved her from any scratches from the glass. She walked out of the church and directly to her own home. Every step she took she looked around her, making sure there was no one following her. When she got to her house, all of the lights were off and her father's car was nowhere to be seen. She slowly made her way up the porch and inside, turning on ever light on the switch board by the door. She sat down in the nearest chair in the foyer and waited. Twenty minutes later a loud knock came from the door.

"Ali it's Spencer and Hanna." She opened the door and was greeted by an extremely drunk Hanna and a frustrated Spencer. She let them in while still looking out the door behind them.

"What happened to you?" Spencer was referencing Allison's disheveled appearance. She hadn't looked at herself since she got back home so she didn't realize how rough she actually looked. In the hallway mirror she could see that her hair was all over the place and her dress was covered in dust and dirt. She also had multiple snags in her sweater from the glass window. She swiped her hand through her hair to put it back and place and made her way over to the girls.

"Wait until the others get here, they shouldn't be too far behind." On cue, the door opened again and Aria and Emily both entered. Emily immediately flew to Ali's side, examining the damage A had done.

"Are you okay?" The tone of her voice was completely different from when the two girls had last left each other. Emily placed a stray piece of hair behind Allison's ear and gave her a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder. Allison didn't know how to respond to Emily because she didn't want to lead her on like she always had done. Instead, she removed herself from the contact and took the seat at the far end of the living room.

"Mona tried to kill me tonight." Allison waited for the girls to react. They digested the information and waited for the long winded story that was sure to come with this revelation. Allison did not budge though. She wanted them to goad the tale out of her.

"Are you going to tell us what happened?" Hanna was drunk but to the point.

"I think HP was right about sticking together. Don't you think it is odd that all of you had plans away from each other on the same day I go back to school?"

"We don't do everything together. We have different friend groups so it was probably just a coincidence."

"There are no coincidences" Ali snapped. "When was the last time something just happened to be a happy little accident?" No one could give her a response.

"Somehow Mona has always been able to plan this perfectly and she is doing it again. This time she is out for blood. I'm lucky that I have someone looking out for me." This caught Emily's attention.

"We are all looking out for you Ali." She said sincerely.

"Then why wasn't it you who saved me from falling out of a window?"

"Stop with the rubics puzzle and just tell us what the hell happened."

"It's a rubics cube, Han." Spencer corrected. "But she has a point. Can you just say the story from start to finish? Then we will see where we go from there."

"Fine. I was over at Emily's house but she left to go to the thing at school. I was there for a while but I decided to go home. When I got outside, a car started following me. I ran as fast as I could to the nearest building. It ended up being that old Church up the road. I went to hide in one of the rooms but when I turned around Mona was waiting for me. She kept talking about how I needed to disappear. I told her that I wasn't the same person and she slapped me."

"What did you do?" Emily asked.

"Nothing and I guess that made her mad. She pushed me back into a window and I was literally hanging out from it. She said she could end it all right then if she wanted. I just kept praying that she would come back to reality but she never did. Mona stopped holding onto me and the only thing that kept me from falling was my legs on the windowsill. I really thought I was done. But all of a sudden a hand reached out for me and pulled me back to safety. I asked them why they would help me and they said they didn't want to become the thing they feared the most. Then they ran away."

"Did you see their face or have any idea who they are?"

"They were really strong but not extremely tall. They were obviously trying to hide their voice so they talked really deep which it sounded like it could have been a guy or a girl. They had a hoodie covering their head and a mask on like Zorro. Even if you put them in a line up, I wouldn't be able to tell you who they were."

"Come on Ali there has to be something" Spencer probed. Allison thought back to all the details of her rescue. It was hard to really pinpoint anything because she had some much adrenaline going. There had to be one feature about the person she recognized. They had stood in the shadows the whole time or had their back turned. She willed herself to think about every sense she experienced. She didn't see or hear anything that gave it away. The only think she tasted was the blood from biting her tongue so hard. She focused on smell and touch. The room was so musty it was hard to pinpoint anyone smell but there had been something. She couldn't think of what to call it but she kept it in the back of her mind. Touch was the only thing left she had to go on.

"Their hands were soft. Like girly soft hands. That doesn't mean HP is a girl though…"

"…but it's a start" Spencer finished.

"I just can't believe Mona would take it that far. That means nothing is off the table anymore."

"It means we need to listen to the person behind the mask." Aria finally chimed in. They all nodded in agreement.

"What do you think this means for the other people in our lives? A has branched out in the past."

"Spencer makes a good point. What about Ezra and Toby?"

"And Paige." Hanna added. She was met by glares from both Emily and Allison.

"What? She is as much a part of this as anybody else. Just cause you guys are over doesn't mean we aren't still friends with her." Hanna was looking for support but got no such agreement.

"Everyone is tired. Let's figure this out tomorrow. If anyone gets a message from anybody make sure you tell everybody else. Right now our best offense is a good defense." They all got up to make their way out the door but Emily hung back.

"Are you sure you want to be alone tonight? I don't mind staying." Emily looked so hopeful and Allison couldn't resist.

"That would be really nice." She shut the door behind the other girls and locked it thoroughly. They made their way to Allison's room and prepared for bed. Once they were situated on either side, they turned off their respective lights. Allison turned away from Emily and tried to go to sleep but couldn't. She still had the scent in her head but couldn't place it. She needed to figure this out but had no idea how to go about it. Instead, she was wide awake when she needed the rest. Several minutes passed when she felt the other side of the bed rustling.

"Ali…are you awake?" Her body froze. For a moment, her body told her to say yes and confront the elephant that had been in the room since she got back. She couldn't do it, though. There was something else on her mind that felt more pressing. She closed her eyes tighter, pretending to be asleep. After several moments, she could feel Emily shift back to her side. She let out a sigh of relief and went back to deciphering the mysterious smell.

Paige had woken up the next day sore and in pain. She removed the bandage on her arm and was relieved to see that there were already signs of healing. This meant she wouldn't have to sit out to much from swimming. It also meant she was going to need a pretty good excuse for her coach. She decided on a biking accident. She knew that her best approach to the situation was to be open to it because hiding it would be suspicious. Instead of wearing a sweat shirt to cover it up, she decided on a rib baring shirt with a vest over top. The bandages the night before had done a good enough job of moisturizing the wound that she didn't feel she needed to put any more on today. She went to her desk and got out Mona's master plan. So far, she had a pretty good average of saves versus losses. The only problem was last night wasn't exactly planned. She didn't know what came over Mona because she wasn't supposed to do anything like that. All she wanted was proof the Ali was still bad. Paige wondered how she was going to get that proof seeing as she almost killed Allison instead of the other way around. Her answer came as soon as she got to school. Sydney had puller her aside when she walked through the front door.

"Did you hear what happened?" Paige thought it was going to be about Mona attacking Allison.

"Last night that dead girl went crazy on a one of the girls in school. Everyone is in the cafeteria right now." Paige couldn't believe that Mona was able to get even the new students caught in her web. Sydney dragged her in the direction of the cafeteria, not letting her even stop by her locker.

"Hey watch the arm please. I wiped out on my bike and it's a little sensitive." Sydney looked at the mark down Paige's arm and shrugged.

"Graceful as ever, McCullers." She continued to drag Paige along just holding higher on her arm.

Allison had just gotten to school when she her presence was requested somewhere else. The girls had gathered at her locker to discuss their new plan and a freshman said that she was needed in the cafeteria. This can't be good, she thought to herself. She made her way in that direction, followed by all four girls, and was met by a hoard of people. She didn't understand until she looked into the center of the group where Mona was standing.

"What do you want Mona?" Allison demanded.

"We know what happened last night." Emily added. Mona looked like a small child who had her toy taken away.

"What are you talking about? I went to talk to Ali and she attacked me." She put her hand to her face where there was a visible scratch on her cheek. Paige so happened to be on Mona's side of the invisible line in the sand and tried to keep her distance. She knew Mona was lying but she put on a good act. Allison shrugged off the accusation and went to leave but Mona wasn't finished.

"And I have proof." She pulled out her phone and put it up for all the liars to see. Paige was at a bad angle but could still hear. She recognized the conversation from the night before and she heard the slap that must have caused Mona's wound. What she didn't hear was the first slap that elicited the response, nor was there the part where Mona pushed Ali out of a window. The facts didn't seem to matter because everyone in the room let out an audible gasp at the damning evidence Mona was presenting.

"I knew you didn't change." Allison looked for mercy from anybody.

"This isn't the whole story. You know that, right. She's lying." Even Emily withdrew herself from Allison's immediate proximity. The only other person who could validate that Allison wasn't lying was standing not ten feet from her but there was no way Paige was coming forward. It wouldn't do any good because Mona would just crank up her retaliation to eleven. Instead, she remained quiet. She looked over at Emily who was clearly dejected and wished she could do something to help her. Their eyes met briefly and she tried to transmit some kind of comfort. Emily's face softened slightly but not for long. Mona and her posse of people walked away, leaving the girls to deal with Allison's latest faux pas. Paige hung back Emily gave her a look that said _we need some space please_. Paige was willing to comply and went off to her first class, knowing that Mona was going to wait a few days to let this information settle before kicking it into high gear.

Allison couldn't believe that Mona had completely taken everything out of context. She didn't tell the girls that she had slapped her back but she didn't think Mona would actually have proof.

"Why did you lie to us?"

"I didn't think it was relevant. Mona hit me first. I slapped her as a knee jerk reaction it wasn't malicious, I swear." The girls looked reluctant to believe her, but they conceded and agreed to trust Ali over Mona.

"So what's next? Has anyone gotten any messages?" They all shook their head no. To Allison, that meant that they were safe at least for that day.

"Well let's just go through the day like normal and maybe meet up later." They agreed but looked annoyed. They went their separate ways leaving Allison alone. She officially had no one on her side except for the person behind the phone. She spent all night thinking about what that smell could possibly be but it escaped her. She went off to class but wherever she walked people still starred at her like she was an animal in a zoo.


	5. Burn

A/N: I couldn't stop typing so here is another quick update. Hope you guys like it. I don't

After school, Paige went to her swim coach and told her about what happened on her bike and that she probably needed a week off. This didn't please her because they had a county meet the next week. Regardless, she understood but asked if Paige would still lead practice. She agreed and made her way out of the office. Doing so, she ran directly into somebody.

"Sorry I wasn't looking at all." She grabbed the other person's arms and looked up. _Of course it's Emily_, she thought. Emily's eyes raked up Paige and stopped at her arm. She quickly ran a hand over it, making Paige wince.

"Oh my God Paige, what happened?" Paige laughed it off.

"That's what I was just talking to coach about, actually. I wiped out on my bike last night when I was trying to get home before Greys was on. I tried taking a short cut through the woods where we run and I got snagged by a tree on my way down. It really isn't that bad." Emily continued to run her hands gently over the wound, not realizing how long she had been touching Paige's arm. Paige waited for her to realize that she was done explaining what happened.

"Sorry, I hope you don't have to miss too much." Her voice was very genuine.

"I really shouldn't, I just need to stop racing places I guess. You know how I am, I get my mind set on something and I forget the consequences." Paige threw in the last part for sympathy. It seemed to work because Emily ducked her head down like she always did when she felt guilty about something. They had really started to get back to being friends, thanks in part to Sydney but there was still a tension between them that they couldn't break. When you take a step back from a relationship to just being friends, you have to completely reacquaint yourself with the other person. The dynamic changes because things you used to be able to talk about or feel are off limits. For Emily, she could feel that change most in this moment. Before, when she had a problem with the girls she would go straight to Paige and Paige would know exactly what to say. This made her feel even guiltier about the night before when she didn't even consider Paige's wellbeing with Mona around. For Paige, it hurt because she could see the frustration in Emily's eyes. She knew that the girl wanted to talk about whatever was bothering her but she also knew they couldn't cross that line anymore. Instead, they stood awkwardly in the locker room starring at each other.

"I'm going to go get practice running." Paige pointed her thumb at the natatorium door. Emily looked disappointed that their interaction was over, and Paige could sense this.

"But if you want to hang out later I am free…" Emily looked conflicted. "…as friends of course." Paige quickly added. A smile spread across Emily's face.

"Why don't you stop by after practice? We could watch a movie or something." Paige returned the smile and went off to the pool.

Everyone had gathered at Emily's house except Hanna. Even Toby and Ezra had made an appearance. They had gotten word that they had identified the remains of the body in Allison's grave. Emily nervously looked at her watch, knowing Paige was supposed to be there soon. The other girls weren't supposed to be at her house that long.

Across town, Hanna and Caleb were drinking and swinging in the Rosewood park. Hanna had gotten the message to come to Emily's immediately. They made their way there and parked farther away from her house because there wasn't any more space on the street. Hanna wasn't completely drunk yet but her inhibition was drastically lower than normal. As they passed Jenna's house, she saw a light flashing in the window. She had an urge to investigate further but didn't want to tow Caleb along. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and pretended that she got a phone call.

"Hey Caleb, it's my mom. Go on ahead and I will meet you in there, this will just take a second." He believed her and went on. She began talking to herself on the phone until she saw him completely out of sight. She walked back to her car to get a flash light so she could sleuth about. When Caleb got in the house, the announcement was about to be made. Emily and Allison were seated next to each other and Spencer and Toby were standing behind them. He was surprised by the site of Mr. Fitz, comfortably hanging with his students.

"Where's Hanna?" Emily asked.

"Right behind me. She's on the phone with her mom." Everyone ignored the last part because the lieutenant of the police began his speech.

Paige approached Emily's house semi-excited about the prospects of the night. She considered telling her that she was the one behind HP. She approached from the side street and saw a crowd gathered in her living room. She got closer and peeked through the window. Her eyes looked for Emily and found her sitting on the chair, her hand intertwined with Allison's. Everything inside of her started to heat up. She started to slow down her breathing but knew she was about to explode. She walked away from the house and knocked over the nearest set of trash cans. She turned the corner and saw a familiar figure sneaking around Toby's house. She squinted her eyes and definitely made out Hanna's figure. She walked towards the house and began to smell something that wasn't quite right. Realization hit her too late and the first explosion occurred. She was thrown onto her back as fire shot up from the house. Inside Emily's house the name had just been released when they also felt the explosion. The glass shattered and they were all thrown on the floor.

Paige jumped up and ran towards the flames. She had just seen Hanna at the right side of the house and prayed she wasn't directly hit. All around her, fire was raging. Luckily, she had her swim track suit on so her skin wasn't exposed. She put her hood up and covered her mouth with her arm. She ran as quickly as she could to the location she had last seen Hanna but was derailed when a nearby car exploded. This once again threw her to the ground. She persisted, though, and made it to the corner of the house. She knew that the smell was gas which meant another explosion wasn't far behind. There were pieces of fence lying about and she couldn't make out if there were any bodies around. Her eyes started to water from the smoke but it didn't stop her from throwing pieces of debris aside. She made it to the back corner of the house when she saw her. There was a slab of fence lying over her leg. In the distance she could hear voices screaming.

"Hanna!" Caleb screamed out and ran up the street. She wasn't by their car or anywhere. Everything around them was on fire and no one could see clearly. He started to run towards the house but was held back by Toby. Toby had tears in his eyes, watching his home go up in flames.

"Caleb you can't go in there." Caleb fought harder but Toby wouldn't let go. The other girls held on to each other and continued to scream Hanna's name along with crying. Even the cars around the house were on fire and Toby began to pull Caleb back to a safer distance. Caleb didn't give up and began crying.

Paige had managed to get the post off of her leg and there didn't seem to be any major damage. The house had blown from the other side and the brick face had protected her from any flames.

"Hanna." Paige shook her shoulder. The girl was semi-conscious and was only able to let out a groan. Paige heard a whizzing sound coming from inside the house and knew her time was up. She quickly took her sweat shirt off and put it over the girls head. She knelt down and threw Hanna over her shoulder making sure she was covered from the fire. She looked at both ways she could go out. If she went the way she came from there was a higher chance of getting caught in the fire. But if she went the other way she might get stuck by the back fence and get caught in a blow back. She only had a second to decide and ran towards the back of the house. Her muscles ached but she kept running. She was right about the fence being in the way. She was unfamiliar with the Cavanaugh's house and didn't know where the gate to get out was. She ran towards the farthest corner away from the house and prayed it wasn't sturdy. She kicked as hard as she could at the corner post and it started to give. She tried to balance the girl on her shoulder but it was becoming increasingly more difficult. With one last attempt, she kicked low and hard at the fence face and it broke through. There was just enough space for her to squeeze through with Hanna in tow. As they made their way through the crack, the rest of the house exploded. She could hear the far away sound of sirens approaching but no amount of help from the fire department was going to put the house out. She walked through the adjacent yard and onto the next street before she laid Hanna down. She was still not all there but at least she was breathing. Regardless, she needed a hospital because there was probably smoke inhalation or some unforeseen damage. Paige did a mental check of herself and besides a sore leg and arm, she didn't think there was any damage. Hanna was slowly coming to and was snuggling into Paige's sweatshirt like a pillow. Paige had a sudden realization that everyone must be worried sick about Hanna.

The fire department had gotten on the scene and so were the police. The girls were still huddled together waiting for the fire department to clear the scene. Caleb was collapsed into a ball on the ground, not moving. Then, all of their phones began sounding off.

"It can't be…" Emily could barely form her words. The prospect that this was a deliberate attack from A was impossible. Aria pulled out her phone first and began crying.

"Oh my God." Before she could tell them the message, the other girls pulled out their phones.

"Hanna is safe…" Spencer read. "She will be at Memorial hospital-HP" Emily finished. Caleb got off the ground and took the phone out of Emily's hand. They watched as he reread the message. He ran his hand through his hair, looking up at the sky, probably saying some kind of prayer of thanks.

The next call Paige made was to Lucas. In less than five minutes, he pulled up to the street they were on. Paige crouched down to Hanna's level and started to get her to start moving but she was swatted away by a delirious hand.

"I am not getting up." She mumbled. _This is ridiculous_ Paige thought to herself. She grabbed Hanna's arms and put them over her shoulder so she could lift her up.

"No, I don't want to go." Paige had Hanna standing but had to hold her up. Hanna's head fell onto Paige's chest into the crook of her neck which made it even harder for her to move.

"You smell like Emily's swim bag." Paige rolled her eyes as she moved her closer to Lucas's car. He had gotten out and opened the door for them. She placed Hanna in, head first. She got her sweat shirt off the ground and went to the other side of the car and placed it under her head. Hanna was now completely laid out in the back of the car and once again fell asleep. Paige slid into the front seat and Lucas began to drive.

"How are we going to get her in there without coming clean?"

"I'll figure it out." Paige leaned her head against the glass of the car looking at the fire blazing in the background. The magnitude of everything started to hit her. She looked at Hanna in the back of the car and her heart kind of broke. She was relatively new to all of this but Hanna and the other girls had been dealing with this for years. Why didn't they run? It didn't make any sense to her. She thought about all the care free things other people take for granted. It furthered her resolve to get to the bottom of all of this. She was going to end everything soon, no matter what.

**TBC**


	6. Just a Moment

A/N: Poor Hanna! She is really getting the short end of everybody's stick right now.

_Rosewood General_

"Can I get some help please?" Paige walked through the sliding doors of the ER, right up to the front desk. She was basket carrying Hanna through the door. A nurse quickly ran around the desk to grab a wheelchair and a doctor.

"What happened?" The nurse demanded.

"I was driving along and I saw her collapsed on the street. She smells like smoke. Was there a fire nearby?" Paige put on her most confused face, and the nurse believed her.

"We just got put on alert for a house fire. We will bring her to the back as soon as we can. Does she have any identification on her?" Paige laid the girl into the wheelchair another person had brought her and reached in her back pocket to pull out Hanna's wallet.

"She had this on her." She handed it over.

"We will get her in a room right now. If you can just wait here for a minute, I am going to go try and track down her family. You may have saved her life tonight." When the nurse went back around the desk, Paige turned back around and walked out the entrance. _May have saved her?_ Paige thought to herself. She rolled her eyes as she headed to Lucas's car. She had definitely saved her. Hanna was loose cannon at the moment and even Paige had begun to notice. She slid into the passenger side of the car and gave Lucas a thumbs up. She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the outline of Emily's Toyota. She grabbed Lucas's neck and pulled his head down, while also lowering herself. The car passed them and parked a stone's throw away. Paige could see the outline of all four girls and one guy getting out. The guy, who looked like a less shaggy Caleb, ran into the ER.

"Okay let's go." Paige said, releasing his neck.

"Nothing is ever dull with you, is it?" Lucas quipped. Paige starred him down but couldn't hold on for long before laughing. They both laughed as he pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

"Nothing is dull in this down. I really am going to end this Lucas. But I will seriously need your help."

"I don't think there is an end here. It's like a circle, every time we think we get to the end we are actually just at an arch headed back to the beginning. There is always someone who has done something to somebody else." Paige knew exactly what he talking about. It is a circle of revenge that she had thought she had escaped. When she had dunked Emily years before, she was doing it to get back at her for what Allison had done. It wasn't Emily's fault that Ali had used her against Paige. Paige was blind back then because she thought that if Emily didn't exist than Allison would have never been able to torture her. The same thing was happening now. People were trying to hurt other people because they were, at some point, hurt themselves. It didn't matter who hurt them or why, the only thing that would make them feel better was revenge.

"Then we need to break the circle." Paige had already started a plan but she didn't have the resources necessary to complete it.

"Well I'm in this for the long haul."

Caleb ran up to the hospital desk as fast as he could.

"I'm looking for a patient." The nurse could see he was frazzled and tried to calm him down.

"Okay son, if you can just give me one second. What is their name?"

"Hanna Marin" She already recognized the name.

"Are you with the person who just dropped her off?" The other four girls had walked up behind Caleb.

"What person? Can you describe them to me?" The urgency is Caleb's voice unsettled the nurse. Hanna had somewhat filled him in on the HP situation.

"Honestly dear I can't tell you much. She had a hoodie on and I was busy trying to get the other girl checked in that I didn't get a good look at her."

"Can you tell me where Hanna is please?" She pointed down a nearby hallway.

"Room 103 down that hallway, her mother is coming to pick her up so you can stay there until she comes." Caleb raced from the desk to the aforementioned room. The girls hung behind to give him some space. When he opened the door, Hanna was sitting in a gurney with an oxygen mask on. She was awake and seemed to be telling the doctor what had happened. She hadn't seen Caleb walk in so was surprised when he grabbed her hand.

"You had me worried sick." He was now crouched by her side and Hanna ran a hand over his face.

"I'm so sorry Caleb. But this is pay back for the light house." She tried to get a smile out of him but he wasn't cracking.

"This isn't funny Hanna, you could have died. What happened?"

"That's actually a good question young man, I was just asking her that myself." The doctor interjected.

"Like I was telling him, I went to get something from the car and I thought I heard something coming from the Cavanaugh house. I went to check it out and the whole place exploded. The next thing I remember I was here."

"Well there are no significant injuries besides some smoke inhalation. I think you are going to have a bruise on your side from the blast but as soon as your mother gets here we can discharge you. You are very lucky Ms. Marin. If somebody hadn't pulled you out of the fire, you could have easily died. You've got one hell of a guardian angel looking out for you." The doctor made his way out the door and as he went out the Liars went in. Caleb continued to hold on to her hand for dear life.

"How ya feeling there Han?" Emily asked.

"I've been better. So how did you know where to find me?" Spencer pulled out her phone and threw it onto Hanna's lap.

"We had a little help." Hanna read over the message.

"By the way we know "it" is actually a she. And she is the business of saving our lives." Spencer added. Allison walked to the other side of Hanna's bed and sat where the doctor was previously.

"Do you remember anything about them?" Hanna ducked her head a little embarrassed of the real reason she was having trouble remembering anything.

"I had a little to drink before I came to your house Em. I wasn't all there anyways so I don't remember much." Allison gave her a disappointed look but didn't push the subject. Hanna actually did remember one important detail but she didn't think it was her business to share until she knew for sure.

"I guess we will wait here till your mom gets here." They all got comfortable and sat in silence.

After Lucas took her home, Paige decided to take a break from sleuthing for a bit to tend to her own wounds. Her arms were impossibly sore and the gash was barely healing. The next day, she was able to go through the motions of school perfectly and even made it through coaching practice. After all the girls left, she decided to throw on her suit and do some easy laps to loosen her muscles.

Hanna had gone the whole day with Caleb attached to her hip. He had been like a stray dog the past 12 hours and was starting to annoy her. He wouldn't let her far out of his sight which made it very hard for her to do anything. She told him that she had tutoring after school and that he would meet her back at her house later. He bought it and she was finally alone. She had sat in one of the classrooms for an hour and then made her way through the empty hallways towards the natatorium. She peered in the window just as all of the girls were leaving. She quickly scooted away from the door and stayed with her back against the wall until everyone left. She peered back in, and just as she had suspected she saw one lone body swimming. She waited patiently until the person finally stopped and got out of the pool. She snuck in the door and made her way to the locker room.

The relief Paige got from swimming those few laps was incredible. Luckily she had a key to the back door so she could stay as long as she liked. She grabbed her stuff out of her locker and headed for the shower. She thought she heard a creak from the other end of the room but ignored it and entered the community style shower room. She turned on the closest shower and waited for the water to warm up. Again, she heard a noise coming from the supposed to be empty locker room. She kept the water running and took a few steps out of the room to look around.

"Hel…" Before she could finish a hand cupped over her mouth and had her pushed against the wall. Her instant reaction was screaming but that suddenly turned to anger when she realized who the hand belonged to. She shook the person off and pushed them a little away.

"Hanna what the hell?" Paige began to catch her breath from the sudden rush of adrenaline.

"Shhhh" Hanna instructed with a finger over her lips.

"I don't know is listening." Paige looked at her bewildered. Paranoia had really began to sink it at this school. Hanna took a step into the shower room and carefully turned on a few other showers.

"What are you doing?" Hanna ignored her until she had turned on the final shower. Now, with all of them running, it was very hard to hear anything.

"I know it's you." Paige tried to play it off but Hanna had a no bullshit face on.

"How?" She conceded. Before she continued, Hanna dragged Paige farther into the shower room, careful not to get herself wet. When they were close enough to hear each other, she began.

"Last night when some crazy batman like person pulled me out of a burning building, I thought to myself, this must be my guardian angel. Then I remember trying to catch my breath but every time I took a breath in everything smelled strange. It took me a second but I figured it out." Paige had been a swimmer for so long; she wasn't fazed by the smell of chlorine. She didn't even realize she smelled like it half the time.

"Chlorine?" Hanna nodded.

"I have been around Emily for so long time that I can smell chlorine from a mile away. Well, when I got to the hospital, I still couldn't tell you Adam from Eve but when they hooked me up to some oxygen, the whole world became clear. And I realized that we had been very stupid. We were trying to figure out who would want to help Allison. And obviously we weren't getting very far. What we should have been doing is seeing who would want to help all of us."

"They really don't give you enough credit." Paige interjected.

"You either." Hanna deadpanned.

"As soon as I thought about the chlorine, I knew you were the one behind it."

"You got me." Paige held her arms out like it was some big reveal.

"Paige you couldn't have been killed last night…and the night before." This made Paige laugh. Hanna was implying that she shouldn't be involved but if she hadn't been, the girl would for sure be dead.

"Hanna I didn't plan on saving you last night. I had no idea the house was going to explode or that you would be there. I was supposed to be at Emily's but…" She decided not to say the real reason she didn't go in. "…but before I got there, I saw you lurking behind the Cavanaugh house. Honestly, I didn't even know it was you. I got closer and that's when I smelled the gas. Even if I wasn't trying to protect you guys from Mona, I would still have gone after you in the fire. You might not believe this but I love all of you girls as much as I love Emily just in a non-lebanese kind of way." Hanna surprised Paige by rushing her with a hug. Even though Paige was wet, Hanna held on. Paige awkwardly reciprocated trying not to soak through the other girl's clothes. Hanna broke away and Paige noticed tears forming in her eyes.

"You are amazing and Emily is an idiot. You deserve better than the way she treated you and once she finds out what you have been doing she is going to realize that."

"Hanna you can't tell her. The only way I can help you guys is by staying anonymous."

"You're willing to let Emily move on, in order to protect her?"

"To protect all of you." Hanna just shook her head at how noble Paige was.

"In another life, I would have married you myself." This made both of them laugh.

"I'm serious though Paige, you don't owe us anything. You have a right to be mad at Allison for what she did. Spencer told me about the nickname and the letter. That isn't right. You also have the right to be mad at Emily. You were trying to do the right thing and I think one day she will see that. In all honesty, you should be working with Mona. If I were in your shoes, I don't know what I would do."

"Hate only breeds more hate. I have moved on from what Ali did to me. Emily chose to leave me on her own and I will respect that decision but it doesn't make me love her less. I was mad but I refuse to let anger rule me anymore."

"You are going to make somebody really happy one day and whether or not that somebody is Emily." Silence overtook them as they stood in the flooded shower room. Paige had made it clear that Hanna couldn't talk but it was nice for someone to know besides Lucas. Before it began getting awkward, Hanna got an SOS text from Allison.

"Duty calls." She laughed.

"I promise I won't tell." She began to walk out of the room but turned back. "Thank you, for everything." Paige nodded in return and began shutting off all of the shower heads. She decided she would go home and shower.

Hanna arranged to meet Allison at her house. She waited in her room until Allison came in out of breath carrying a duffle bag and a larger purse.

"What are you doing?"

"I need your help to get out of town." Hanna was shocked at how quickly Allison had given up on Rosewood.

"What do you need?" Allison was relieved at how eager Hanna was to help.

"I just need you to take me to the train station tomorrow and maybe let me borrow a few outfits and some cash." Hanna immediately went to her closet and took half of the clothes off the rack and placed them into Allison's bag. She wanted to get rid of the image Mona had created for her anyways.

"Hanna I don't need your entire wardrobe." Hanna brushed her off and continued to place things in her bag.

"Thank you Hanna. I have my ticket and I'm going to leave in the morning. Can I leave everything and just meet you here tomorrow? I want to say goodbye to my dad."

"Of course, whatever you need." Hanna couldn't believe that Ali wanted to run. She was being selfish by helping her but she thought all of this might just go away if the girl disappeared. Allison hadn't been gone twenty minutes when another familiar face slipped in her door. She wasn't prepared for Emily so she could barely hide the wad of cash that she had gotten out for Allison.

"Hey, I needed to get your notes from History so your mom let me…" She instantly got distracted by the packed bag and train ticket. She picked it off the counter and read the destination.

"Going somewhere?" Emily remarked.

"Just to visit my grandmother." Emily didn't buy it.

"Hanna your grandmother lives in the other direction, what is going on?" Hanna didn't feel like lying anymore.

"It's for Allison, she wants to run." Emily was hurt both because she had just begun trying to get used to Allison being back.

"How could you let her do this?"

"Emily nobody lets Allison do anything. She does it and you either help her or get out of her way." Hanna made a valid point.

"We just got her back." Hanna picked up the tone of Emily's voice.

"You mean, you just got her back. News flash Emily she doesn't love you." Emily looked offended.

"I never said that."

"But that's what you have been thinking this whole time. We all know you were in love with her but Allison is incapable of love. You are ruining your life by thinking she can." Emily collapsed on the bed in tears.

"I don't know what is happening right now. I am so confused about everything and I just want one second where I don't feel like the world is going to fall apart. That's all I need and then I can go back to figuring out who does and doesn't love me." Hanna didn't mean to make Emily mad but she knew the girl needed a reality check.

"And who are you to talk Han? Since Ali got back, you have had a makeover melt down. First your hair, then your clothes, and now you're running into burning buildings. I'm not the only one who is going a crazy with Ali around."

"I'm tired of being in her shadow!" Hanna shouted.

"And I'm not? Believe it or not we are both in her shadow. For me it's the shadow that lingers over every relationship I've ever had. I honestly can't tell if what I'm feeling is because I still love her or because I never got the validation I needed. With her being back, it is like I'm 15 again and still afraid of who I am."

"Em what are you talking about? You don't need Ali to tell you it's okay to be gay. Is that what this is about?" Emily wouldn't make eye contact with her. She turned around and walked towards the door.

"Promise me you won't let her leave tomorrow, okay?"

"Em where are you going?"

"I told you I need a moment, okay." Emily walked out of the room and out of the house. She got in her car and tried to calm herself but it wasn't helping. Hanna made some annoying but good points that Emily didn't want to face. She turned on the car and started to drive, thinking about all of the decisions that led her to this point. She stopped the car in front of a house that was not her own. She had only been driving for a few minutes but hadn't been paying much attention. Her brain had worked on auto pilot and now she was somewhere that had been rather unfamiliar as of late. She took a few deep breaths and turned off her car. _I just need a moment_, she thought to herself. She quickly made her way up the porch and knocked on the door. She twiddled her thumbs for what felt like eternity and then the front door opened.

"Hi Emily it's a surprise to see you." She was slightly disappointed at the person who answered the door.

"Hi Mr. McCullers, is Paige here?" He gave her an unforgiving once over and she could tell he was contemplating saying no. It had to be common knowledge that the two girls had broken up.

"She is in her room if you want to go up." He pulled the door open farther for her to come in.

Paige had been actually working on homework and trying her best to have a peaceful evening. Her run in with Hanna was unusually calming for her. She really felt for what Hanna must be going through. She seemed to be having an identity crisis that was turning into a life choices crisis which Paige could relate to. She turned up her music and began to get into the Chemistry work when she heard a knock at the door.

"Dad I'm studying." She yelled aimlessly behind her. She continued to jam to the music not really paying attention to the molecules on the page. As the song changed, soft hands brushed against her ears, pulling the buds out.

"Hey…" She turned to grab the hands and was shocked by who they belonged to.

"What…" She didn't really know what was happening. Her heart started to get excited but her brain shut that down quickly. "What are you doing here Em?" she tried to say indifferently.

"I need…I need a favor." She took a step back away from Paige's desk and started nervously playing with things on her dresser.

"Is everything okay?" She wasn't sure Emily heard her because the other girl was fiddling with a swim trophy. Emily snapped back to reality and quickly put the object back down.

"Im going to preface this by saying this doesn't mean anything. What I'm going to ask you, don't think it means anything because it doesn't. I just…can you just do something for me without it being something else?" Emily was moving her arms erratically.

"Are you drunk?" Paige got out of her chair and moved closer to Emily.

"No I'm not drunk, I just need a favor, okay?"

"Fine." Paige put up her hands defensively.

"Lay on the bed, please." Paige's face contorted into confusion so she didn't move as Emily asked her to.

"Em…" She started.

"Please." Emily said pathetically. Paige didn't argue and laid down on her side, propping her head up with her hand. Emily followed suit and laid directly in front of her in the same position. Their faces were inches apart and Paige did all she could not to reach out and grab her. She could hear her breathing speeding up and she closed her eyes to get in control of it. She opened them while Emily was staring intently at her like she was studying a picture. Neither of them said anything nor did they close the space between them. Finally, Emily flipped herself over in the opposite direction. She reached behind her and grabbed Paige's free arm and laid it across her stomach. On reflex, Paige pulled her in closer to where her face was nestled into the back of Emily's hair. She moved her other arm to her side and moved her head so it was in the crook of Emily's neck. Emily laced her hand with Paige's and closed her eyes. She took many deep breaths and could feel her body relaxing. The interaction was having the same effect on Paige and both girls were able to let go of the tension the last few days had brought on. Paige knew that something must have gone wrong for this to be happening and she worried that this was going to set them back even farther from moving on. She didn't care though because this was what they were best at—being connected.

"Emily what's wrong?" Paige whispered.

"Shhhh…"She responded with her eyes still shut close, drifting off to sleep. "I just need a moment."

**TBC**

.


	7. Restart

A/N: I'm glad you guys are liking this. It is really hard to give everybody attention because it is such an ensemble of people. If you have any suggestions hit me up

Paige woke up in the same position she fell asleep. She started to move but the body in front of her wouldn't let her.

"No…just a few more minutes." Emily pulled Paige's arm in tighter. Paige smiled at this but that smile soon faded when she looked at the clock.

"Em it's almost 7!" Emily shot up from the bed.

"As in the morning? I thought I had been asleep twenty minutes." She ran her hand erratically through her hair and paced the floor.

"My mother is going to kill me." She looked for her shoes that she had kicked off in the night and her bag.

"You're never going to make it home in time to get changed and not be late for school. Just shower here, I took one last night. You know where everything is." Emily took a second to think it over.

"Is my bag still…" Emily started but Paige didn't wait for her to finish.

"Yeah, it's in the closet on the right." Emily walked over to her closet and found the overnight bag she used to leave there. It had clean clothes and even a toothbrush. Emily grabbed the toothbrush and headed towards the bathroom. In the meantime, Paige threw on the first thing in her closet and went back over to her homework and tried to at least put something down for most of the questions. The door behind her opened and Emily sipped in, clad only in a towel. Paige's back was to her and when she turned she didn't expect a half-naked Emily.

"Sorry." She quickly turned around.

"Paige it's not like you haven't seen me in a towel…or less." This made Paige's face turn red.

"Still, I don't have that right anymore." This hurt Emily a little but she knew it was her own fault. Paige kept her eyes in the other direction, allowing Emily to get changed.

"You can look now." Paige packed her stuff in her bag and placed her bag on the bed. Emily was still towel drying her hair.

"Should we talk about last night?" Emily began.

"There's nothing to talk about Em. It doesn't mean anything, remember?" Paige responded coyly with the line Emily had given her multiple times the night before.

"Are you okay?" She said seriously.

"There is just so much going on right now Paige and when I close my eyes the world just keeps spinning. Last night, I was at my brink and I just needed to remind myself that there was a time when things were normal. I needed that." Paige accepted Emily's explanation. She sat down on the bed and waited as Emily finished getting ready. She didn't realize she had zoned out until she saw Emily smiling at her and waving a hand in front of her face. She returned the smile and rubbed her hands over her face to make the redness less noticeable. Emily thought it was adorable.

"I'm ready when you are." She said.

"yeah, I'm good. It's looks like we will be cutting it close. Do you mind if I catch a ride with you? My bike won't get me there fast enough today."

"Of course." She laughed. Paige quickly ran and brushed her teeth and they headed to Emily's car. It didn't go unnoticed by Paige that Emily had put her overnight bag back in her closet. They loaded into the car and started off to school. They really hadn't interacted alone much since the breakup which caused an extreme amount of awkwardness. Paige really didn't want to resort to talking about the weather. Luckily, she didn't have to because Emily had something else on her mind.

"Do you ever wish we could start over?" She asked.

"That is a really loaded question." Paige responded.

"I mean do you ever think what it would have been like if we had met in college or after all of this A stuff. Sometimes I want to just pretend that everything that has happened to us disappeared and we met like two normal people. No normal relationship ever had to deal with what we have dealt with. I'm either almost getting you killed or putting you in an impossible position."

"That's not fair, Em. I've chosen to stick around. Actually, if I remember correctly you tried to warn me about what would happen if I fell for you."

"Would you do it again?"

"In a heartbeat." Paige reached across the armrest and grabbed Emily's hand.

"I have never once regretted any time I've ever spent with you. Don't forget that there are a lot of good things sprinkled in all of that bad…You're right though, sometimes I would like to just restart." She continued to hold the other girl's hand, receiving no opposition.

"Maybe we can one day. We'll see each other across a crowded room and sneakily make eye contact until one of us gets the courage to talk to the other person. Then, you will shyly introduce yourself to me and I will blush and barely respond. "

"Why am I introducing myself first?" Paige laughed.

"Come on Paige, you always are the first one to act. Why are you complaining, in this scenario you make me so nervous I can't speak."

"I thought I already did that." She responded coyly. Emily moved her hand away from Paige's grasp and lightly smacked her on the arm.

"Then what?"

"Then, you start to walk away because you know you already have me hooked and I will embarrassingly call after you to invite you to the first thing that comes to my head. You will give me a noncommittal answer but show up anyway and finally…"

"we live happily ever after." Paige finished. Emily got a sad smile on her face. The scenario was perfect. It reminded her of the dorm room they had made on Paige's computer. In theory, it was the dream life. But theory doesn't always mean truth.

"Yeah.

"Maybe." Paige responded hopefully. Emily pulled into a parking spot and they both collected their things.

"Thanks for last night." Emily said.

"Anytime." Paige smiled, got out, and walked off in the opposite direction. Emily couldn't help but smile. Her life was complicated but somehow Paige made it seem to make a little more sense. She grabbed her bag out of the car and headed towards the front door. The first thing she saw was Hanna at her locker. She suddenly remembered the reason she needed to go to Paige's the night before. She rushed over to Hanna, praying that she had done what she promised.

"Is she still here?" She demanded more than asked.

"Chill Em, she's still here. It took a lot of convincing but I think she is going to stick it out. And I told your mom that you spent the night at my house because she was freaking out last night. I said you left your phone at school." Emily had also completely forgotten to call her mom. The last 24 hours were such a blur to her that she wondered what else she had forgotten.

"You are seriously a life saver."

"So are you going to tell me where you actually were?" Hanna gave her a sly, sideways grin. Emily was saved by the appearance of Spencer and Aria.

"So did you hear that Noel is having a party tonight?"

"Noel has a party like every month." Emily responded.

"Yeah at his parent's cabin or at a rented place, this one is at his actual house."

"Okay Spenc you are just going to have to clue me in here." Hanna wasn't in the mood for twenty questions.

"His house means his room. If we go, we will potentially have access to stuff that he has been doing with Mona. There isn't a better time than with fifty other drunk teenagers around."

"How are we even going to get invited?" Emily asked.

"We already are." Aria responded. "He told me when I walked in this morning. He said and I quote party at mine tonight, bring the girls I'd love to catch up." Aria put the end part in air quotes.

"Alrighty then I guess we are partying tonight. Now that we have that settled we should get back to the where's waldo of Emily last night." Spencer and Aria were both confused and Emily was petrified. It didn't help that Paige had just walked into that hallway and was at her locker. Paige looked back at Emily and they both smiled, something that hadn't happened in a long time.

"I don't have to answer that Hanna."

"Then I will tell your mom you weren't actually at my house last night." Hanna threatened. Emily rolled her eyes because she knew it was an empty threat.

Paige was putting her things in her locker when she got an idea. She looked back at Emily and the girl was still starring at her. When their eyes met again, Emily quickly looked back to Hanna. Hanna was saying something that obviously annoyed Emily. Paige slung her back pack over her shoulder and made her way towards the group of girls. What she was about to do was either going to go really well or really bad.

"Excuse me." She interrupted a talking Hanna. All of the girls looked at her confused but her attention was solely on Emily.

"I was walking by and I couldn't help but notice you." At this point, even Emily was confused. Paige reached out a hand to her. "I'm Paige McCullers, I don't think we've had the chance to meet." This elicited an instant smile from Emily and she played along. She took Paige's hand and acted extremely bashful.

"Emily Fields." She said just above a whisper.

"Sorry I didn't get that." Paige responded, not letting go of her hand. Emily lifted her head and spoke a little louder.

"Emily Fields." The other girls didn't know how to respond to the exchange that was happening.

"It is very nice to meet you and you have a beautiful smile." Paige began to walk away, slower than normal. On cue, Emily called after her.

"Wait." She moved past the girls and grabbed Paige's arm to turn her around. "There's this party tonight at Noel Kahn's house if you want to stop by." Paige mulled it over for a second.

"Maybe." She winked and turned to leave again. Emily turned back to her friends, her face completely flushed.

"ummm what the hell was that." Spencer said first. Emily wasn't paying attention because she was so caught up in what just happened.

"Earth to Emily, did you get abducted last night or something?" Hanna added.

"Guys it's nothing. She was just making fun of something that we talked about this morning." Emily screwed herself over by adding the last part.

"This morning? You just got here and she just got here, when did you have time to talk?" Spencer interrogated. Emily didn't realize her face could get any redder. She tried to walk away but the girls blocked her in.

"Talk." Spencer demanded.

"Fine, I kind of slept with Paige last night." She immediately wished she could take back her wording.

"Excuse me?"

"Not like sleep with sleep with. We just slept , I promise." Spencer's eye brow raised questioningly.

"I was at Hanna's and I kind of had a meltdown so I went over to Paige's house to calm down and I woke up there this morning."

"So that explains the energy exchange we just witnessed. Are you two back together?" Aria asked.

"No we aren't back together….We are kind of restarting." Emily left it at that and pushed through them to go to her class.

"Do you want to put bets on who's going to win in the fist fight Ali or Paige?"

"Hanna!" Spencer and Aria said in unison.

"What I'm just saying, this is going to end badly." She defended herself.

"Yeah but we can at least pretend to be supportive." Spencer began to walk away for class but turned back to the other girls. "Twenty bucks Ali gets one hit." Hanna cracked a smile. "Please, Twenty bucks Paige knocks her out before she even gets the chance to swing." Aria rolled her eyes. "Twenty bucks Paige takes the hits and doesn't fight back."

"Interesting position Ms. Montgomery. You do know Paige has a penalty named after her, right?"

"We'll see Hastings, but you better be ready to put your money where your mouth is." They all laughed and separated for class.

Paige was smiling her entire way to class. Her impromptu introduction had elicited the exact response she wanted. She was walking past the English rooms when a hand grabbed her and pulled her into the closest classroom. She was getting tired of the anonymous hand people. The hands belonged to Lucas. Luckily, he didn't put his hand over her mouth like Hanna did. She would have probably been inclined to bite him had that been the case.

"Seriously?" She questioned.

"Calm down princess. Listen, I overheard Mona and Noel Kahn talking in the hallway. This party tonight is going to be bad. I think they are trying to set a trap of some sort. They know the girls are going to want to search through his stuff and I think they are going to plant things to make other people look guilty. You have to get in there first and find whatever that is. You can't warn them either. Mona will know something is up." He was nearly out of breath when he finished.

"Will you be there?"

"I don't think so. I didn't really get the invite. You're on your own."

"Great." She deadpanned.

**TBC**


	8. Never Have I Ever

A/N: You guys are awesome. I hope you like this chapter!

Paige skipped swim practice to get ready for Noel Kahn's party. Luckily, there wasn't a theme so she could put on what felt comfortable. She decided on something that she could run away in. That included skinny jeans, blue high tops, and a cut out shirt that exposed most of her back. She knew the shirt was a little too much but it really did show off her better assets. _And might drive Emily wild_, she thought. Along with both of her phones, Paige also grabbed a bag that could hang over her shoulder, just in case she needed to take anything out of the Noel's house. She decided to take her car because it would offer a quick escape. She didn't plan on drinking anything so that wouldn't be an issue. She told her dad she was going to a swim party, which technically there would be other swimmers there so it wasn't a complete lie.

The girls had all decided to get ready at Hanna's house. It was a little uncomfortable because no one talked about Ali almost leaving. There were clothes and make up strewn across the room. Unlike Paige, the girls were going for fashion not practicality. Everyone but Spencer was in a dress of assorted lengths and styles. Spencer didn't think she had anyone to impress, which was a fair point. She decided to stay in what she wore to school, much to Hanna's disdain.

"So what exactly is the plan tonight?" Hanna asked. Hanna tried to contact Paige earlier to see if she knew anything but was unsuccessful.

"When we get there, just blend in and look out for anything that looks out of place. At ten we will meet up out front and split up. From what I understand, he has a desk in his room but he also does a lot of stuff in his dad's study. Two of us will go to the study; the other two will hit his room. One person will stay on the lookout and distract Noel." Spencer instructed.

"What about Mona and whoever she has there. We have no idea how many people are playing for her."

"Then we might need one person to go into each place so it's not so suspicious." They all agreed to Spencer's suggestion. Spencer looked at her watch and saw that it was almost nine.

"Let's go before we are the last people there." They moved out of Hanna's house and piled into Emily's car. It was never a comfortable fit without Allison and now it was nearly unbearable. The Toyota was definitely not a family friendly car. They pulled up to Noel's house fifteen minutes later and were right about being the last people. The house was lit up with people strewn everywhere. It was like the whole school had decided to be social that evening.

"Don't forget, ten o'clock back here." Spencer stated. They walked into the house together, but instantly went their separate ways to interact with different people from school. Emily had seen Sydney and went towards her. She was mingling with more of the swim girls and this was a place where Emily felt comfortable.

"Wow, I didn't think you knew how to have fun." Sydney teased as she offered Emily a beer.

"No thanks, I'm driving." She rejected. Sydney shrugged her shoulders and drank the cup herself.

"I know I haven't been here long but this Kahn guy knows how to throw a party."

"Yeah he's a character." Emily grabbed a soft drink from one of the coolers and leaned against the kitchen counter.

"This doesn't really seem like your scene." Emily laughed at Sydney's remark because a year ago the roles would be reversed and she would be the one drinking and having a fun time. Now, she felt eighty years old and just wanted to go to bed.

"I love this crap. Where else do you get to see the tight asses from school make complete fools of themselves?" This made Sydney smile. Before Emily could continue talking, one of the swim girls grabbed both their hands and pulled them in another direction.

"Come on all the swimmers are getting together in one of the dens." Emily didn't protest and followed a long. She was dragged down a hallway and they turned into a huge room with a fireplace and one of the long connected couches. It was pretty dark and only a lamp by the farthest end of the couch was on. There were about ten girls all crowded on and around the couches. The one girl had finally let go of her hand and she contemplated running. That was until she bumped into somebody trying to find the handle to the door.

"Sorry." She stuttered. She turned and a smile plastered itself on her face.

"It's perfectly fine. I've never had something so pretty almost knock me over. It's Emily, right?" Paige tried to cover the smile on her face.

"Yeah, you have a good memory. And you are Piper right?" She bit her lip knowing her mistake.

"Paige, actually." She leaned in closer right by Emily's ear. "but I think you knew that." Emily's breath caught in her throat as Paige pushed past her towards the couches. She knew this game couldn't last forever but it was fun and at least on her end, extremely sexy. Emily followed suit and sat next to Sydney, across from Paige.

"Okay guys I think everybody is here. Who wants to play never have I ever?" There were squeals from the younger girls but the mention of the game made both Paige and Emily roll their eyes. No one said anything original and usually turned into questions about how far you have gone.

"Everybody put up five fingers" an overly excited sophomore said.

"Never have I ever, peed in the pool." Paige nearly busted out laughing. This was going to be the most tame game ever played. A few girls put a finger down eliciting ewws from some of the other swimmers. The game continued with extremely mundane things. There were only a few girls left in, including Emily and Paige. Surprisingly, both of them had all five of their fingers.

"Come on somebody get them out please." Sydney drunkenly yelled.

"It's not our fault neither of us have done stupid things like wear a bathing suit as underwear." Emily laughed at Paige's remark.

"You guys are just going to have to up the ante." Emily encouraged. She would soon regret that comment.

"Fine, never have I ever kissed a girl." Emily and Paige both put a finger town, smiling at each other. Surprisingly, another freshman did as well, but no one was paying attention to it. The other girls went along Sydney's train of thought and picked out things that would only get the two girls out.

"Never have I ever had sex with a girl." One said. Again, Paige and Emily put a finger down. This was accompanied by hoots and hollers from the other girls.

"I got one…" One girl shouted and raised her hand in the air. "Never have I ever had sex in a pool." Paige's face turned bright red and slowly put a finger down. Emily was more proud about it and followed suit. They each only had two fingers left now.

"At school or your house?" One girl asked. Paige averted eye contact.

"Both!" Syndey exclaimed.

"Okay you can't use our relationship against us!" Paige argued. "You could literally say anything gay and we would have to put our fingers down."

"You were the one who said up the ante, princess." This made Emily laugh even harder. Paige scolded her with her eyes but Emily just shrugged her shoulders. Paige saw this as a challenge and decided to take her turn.

"Okay Em…" She smirked. "…never have I ever passed out in the middle of sex." All the girls mouth fell open and Emily almost died of embarrassment. Paige knew it was a low blow but it made her point.

"Way to go Paige." Sydney reached across the table and high fived her. Emily just shook her head.

"Please… don't give her that much credit. We had just competed in the hardest meet ever and I was exhausted."

"Then why would you…" A girl started to ask shyly.

"We were…" Paige didn't know how to word it. "…celebrating." Emily finished. They had both had best times and a Stanford coach was there for both of them.

"You want to go there Paige?" Emily was fired up now.

"Never have I ever sent a "sext" to my girlfriend's mother by accident." _One time, _Paige thought to herself. She put down one digit leaving her middle finger in the air for Emily.

"Don't ask." Paige threatened the room. The other girls could see the heat between their teammates and didn't dare intervene. There was a stare off going on and neither of them wanted to break. Sydney coughed to cut through the silence but it didn't affect much.

"I guess I'll go again." She said. "The question is, do I want to get one of you out or both?" They both glared at her, hoping to scare her more. Competition was just another aspect of their relationship and this was a do or die situation for them. Sydney played with her hair thinking of the perfect line.

"I'll do an easy one. Never have I ever been in love with anyone in this room." The statement was like a bucket of water over the situation, Paige and Emily smiled at each other as they put their last finger down. Paige looked down at her watch and realized she wasn't making good use of her time. She jumped off the couch and headed out of the room, quickly thanking everyone for including her. Emily was confused on where Paige was going. She thought they were having fun. She began to get up to go after her but Sydney held her back.

"Do you mind taking me to the bathroom, I don't feel very well." Emily looked off to where the door had just shut and realized she missed her window for Paige. She agreed and helped Sydney up and started to locate a bathroom.

Paige slipped upstairs where Lucas told her to go. It was almost ten. She slipped past two massive rooms and into the third one on the right. She wiggled the handle and it was unlocked. There were a few people around her either making out or just passing through. She made sure no one was paying direct attention to her and started to open the door but was stopped by another one of the swim girls.

"You totally went for the gold down stairs. I didn't realize you in fields were so risqué." She said flirtily. Paige knew the girl was drunk and extremely straight. She tried to back away slightly, but the girl kept getting closer.

"Maddie can you give me a little space here to breathe my own oxygen." Maddie laughed obnoxiously.

"You are so funny. I see why someone as hot as Emily would be into you. You really are the whole package." This was getting into dangerous territory and Paige wanted to hit the abort button. She didn't have a chance though because the girl grabbed her face and brought it to hers. It was awful and messy and Paige tried to break away as quickly as she could. She put her hands to the other girl's shoulders and pried her off. It was too late though.

"Paige?" Emily was at the top of the stairs looking at them with a drunk Sydney on her arm.

"Hi Em." Maddie teased.

"This is not what it looks like." Paige put up her hands defensively. It didn't matter though because Emily backed down the stairs.

"Really Maddie?" The girl rolled her eyes and walked away. Paige wanted to run after Emily so bad but she was afraid she would lose her opportunity. In any case, she technically didn't do anything wrong. First of all, they weren't together. And second of all, she was not a willing participant of that whole incident. She decided to go into the room.

Outside, the girls all gathered by Emily's car, except for Emily. She finally came towards them, visible redness in her eyes. It was so dark that the other girls didn't pick up on it.

"Okay, everyone ready? Hanna go up to Kahn's room, I'm going to go into the study, Aria is going to distract him, and Ali and Emily will play watch dog." She looked at all of them to confirm their understanding of the plan. They all nodded and she clapped her hands together, "break."

"Really, spenc?" Hanna rolled her eyes. They all headed into the appropriate direction. Hanna slinked up the stairs and opened every door, not knowing where she was going. She got to the third door and heard something inside. You slowly opened it and saw a figure hunched over a desk in the far corner.

"Hey!" Paige swung around thinking someone had caught her snooping. Luckily, that someone was just Hanna. Hanna didn't realize who she was interrupting. She quickly got in the room and shut the door.

"Paige what are you doing?" Paige slightly ignored her and continued to look through the papers on his desk.

"I'm looking for the evidence Noel planted here."

"What are you talking about?" Paige turned towards Hanna, having no luck on the desk.

"They knew you guys would try and look for something in his room so they supposedly planted some fake leads or something. I won't know until I find whatever it is."

"Can I help?" Hanna started flipping through the book shelf.

"Sure. Look for something super obvious. Like a journal or an audio tape…"

"..or a folder with Mona's name on it?" Paige walked over towards what Hanna found. It was Mona's French folder. She took it out of Hanna's hands and flipped it open. The front pages seemed to be just normal French homework but she flipped through and found papers that didn't match. She pulled those out and threw the rest on the bed.

"So what is it?" Paige skimmed the papers and tried to piece together what it could mean. They were transcripts from police interviews. It was about the girl who had really been in Ali's grave. They seemed to be copies so they could have easily been fakes.

"It looks like the police interviews from when people were questioned about the disappearance of the girl in Ali's grave. Hanna they talked to a lot of people based on this."

"What do you mean?"

"There are full interviews here but there is also a list of names that they were going to."

"Who is in the interview there?" Before Paige could answer, the door handle started to jiggle. The door started to open and Hanna did the first think she could think of. She pushed Paige against the book shelf and began kissing her. Paige dropped the papers and was too shocked to respond but didn't stop.

"Woah, I am so sorry." Some drunk guy and his girlfriend turned back around and walked out, closing the door behind them. Hanna backed away and caught her breath. It didn't go unnoticed by Paige that the other girl had licked her lips afterwards.

"Why do girls keep kissing me tonight?" She said flustered, running her hand through her hair.

"Maybe, because you're a good kisser… and I'm pretty sure your lips were crafted by a technician close to God. Do you moisturize?" Paige glared at her.

"You're not helping." She knelt down to pick up the pages she just dropped.

"Jeez, you lesbians never give me the time of day."

**TBC**


	9. Take it Off

A/N: I really appreciated all the reviews. I read all of them (multiple times) and really like your comments. If you have any suggestions don't be afraid I can take criticism. This is mostly filler so I can set up the next big part.

"So who was being interviewed?" Hanna asked.

"Oh you care about this now?" Hanna gave Paige an incredulous look.

"I'm just kidding. The interview is between Melissa Hastings and an officer I don't know. He's probably retired by now."

"Melissa? Why would they interview her?" Paige continued to scan through the papers. She found her answers a few pages in.

"She was a volunteer at Radley when Bethany Young went missing." Paige kept reading on.

"Apparently she was a good friend to the girl." Hanna grabbed the papers to see for herself.

"Hanna I don't know how legitimate these are. I was told that they were going to try and plant something for you. This could be real or just a wild goose chase."

"How do we know if it's real or not?" Paige had no idea how to answer that. The paper was just a photocopy of something else so it could be in a police file or it may not exist at all.

"Do we take them?" Hanna asked.

"No, I brought my camera. I will take pictures of it all but you can't give this information to the other girls. I will try to investigate it further to see if it's real. If it is, you will be the first to know." She started taking pictures of all of the sheets.

"Spencer isn't going to believe that I didn't find anything in here." Paige thought about what she could give them that would make them believe Hanna. She opened the folder again and pulled out the last sheet.

"Take a picture of the people they interviewed. It won't tell them anything meaningful but it will be enough until I can figure out the rest of this." Hanna pulled out her photo and took a picture. Paige put the folder back where they found it. They started to make their way to the door but Paige stopped Hanna.

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Of course, Paige. I literally owe you my life."

"I need you to find out if Emily was really upset about the letter. I think she used it as an excuse and I want to know the real reason she ended things. I'm not doing this to get her back but I don't want to leave us in a position to where we can't even be friends."

"I honestly don't know what goes on in her head half the time." This wasn't reassuring to Paige. She ducked her head knowing this meant she would never figure it out. Hanna saw how unsettled she made the other girl.

"I promise I will try. If you need any help with all of this, you know where I am." Hanna slipped out of the door first. Paige gave her a few seconds and then followed after her. She decided she would actually enjoy the rest of the evening.

Emily and Allison had been making their rounds of the room, trying to spot anyone who would give Hanna and Spencer trouble. Everyone looked normal and drunk. Along the way, Emily decided to enjoy the party and began taking in various forms of alcohol. They met back up by the stairs and decided to stay there until the other girls were ready.

"Hey are you okay?" Allison was referencing Emily's slightly red eyes.

"Yeah. I just saw something that made me upset." She turned away, trying to end the conversation.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not with you." Emily deadpanned.

"What's that supposed to mean? I'm your friend." Emily rolled her eyes.

"It's about Paige and you don't like me talking about her so I'm respecting that."

"Just because I don't like her doesn't mean I won't listen to you. Em, we are not in the same place that we used to be. I think it's my fault and we need to talk about it." Emily did not want to talk about it there with a party raging around them but it didn't seem like Allison would let it go.

"Are you okay with me being gay?" This threw Allison. She expected Emily to ask her if she loved her again.

"Em of course I'm okay with that, why would you ever think I wouldn't be." She reached out and grabbed Emily's hand.

"When I was trying figuring out all my feelings you were the first girl I ever kissed. It was like a light bulb sounded in my head. Everything I discovered about myself was because of that moment because I thought it was all true...and…and for some reason I feel if you never really loved me or even liked me than I'm living a lie."

"Em." Allison tried to interrupt but Emily wouldn't let her. "No you have to let me get all of this out. I have hurt so many people because you screwed me up so much. I never know if someone loves me or is just stringing me along. I have ruined relationships because I over analyze what they are doing. I'm afraid that they are going to do to me what you already did. And I don't want to do that anymore. I guess I thought that if you said you liked me and that you weren't just manipulating me than I wouldn't feel like this with everyone else." Allison put her hands on Emily's shoulders to settle the shaking girl.

"I am so sorry for doing this to you. I didn't know what I was doing either. I was fourteen and I didn't want to show weakness. At the time, I really did feel something but things have changed. I don't think you love me either. I think you are holding on to those feelings because you think it will make everything that has happened disappear. You are in love with being a kid and having no worries." Allison was right. Emily's feelings were rooted in who she used to be. For so long, she wanted to turn back the dial and restart. She thought about it often. What it would be like to never have to deal with A or to go to a party to have fun not to get evidence. Even though Allison was admitting she didn't love her, it still didn't change the fact that she couldn't trust relationships because of her.

"And not everyone is out to get you. At some point, you have to trust people even when it feels hard or wrong. Look at this HP person. For all we know, she could be setting up some master plan to kill us but right now she is the only person who has our back. I can't take back what I did to you but I can help you now." Emily laughed at this. She had broken up with Paige because of Allison and now Allison wanted to help her get better at being in relationships. There was too much irony for her to be sober during this conversation. She started to walk away to get some much needed alcohol.

"Em where are you going?"

"Anywhere but here." She shouted behind her. She found the nearest cup of unidentified alcohol and jugged it. She had been waiting for Allison's answer all week and the reality wasn't all that surprising. Allison had a point though, she really wasn't even in love with her. She was in love with the idea of starting over. She grabbed two shots off of the counter and downed them just as quickly as the first. The worst part about the whole situation is that she was still back to square one. She was now single, rejected by her first love, replaced by her most recent love and standing in the middle of a party where there were probably a dozen people who wanted to mess with her. She crumpled up the can in her hand and threw it on the ground. She saw a group of kids playing beer pong and joined in. Forgetting this night would be the best possible thing for her.

Hanna found Allison at the bottom of the stairs and was joined by Aria and Spencer.

"Did you find anything?" Spencer shook her head no.

"Where's Emily?" Aria questioned. Allison shrugged her shoulders. "She ran off somewhere. She wasn't too happy with the conversation we were having."

"Great. Hanna did you find anything?" She took out her phone and gave it to Spencer.

"It's a list of the people the police interviewed with Bethany went missing."

"Holy crap Hanna this is huge. Half of these names are people connected to Toby's mom's case." She passed the phone to Allison and Aria and they scanned the names, some of whom they were related to.

"Let's get Emily and get out of here." They left the stairs looking around for their lost friend. They didn't make it far when they heard a loud group of people hooting and hollering. Turning the corner, they saw Emily on top of the beer pong table dancing.

"What is she doing?" Spencer tried to walk towards her but the crowd was too dense to get through.

"Take it off." Someone screamed from the back. Emily was too drunk to care and started to undo the zipper on her dress. The other girls continued to try and push through but they kept getting pushed back.

"Emily get down!" Hanna shouted from ten feet back. Emily didn't hear here and continued to try and get her zipper. She gave up and picked up some of the beer pong cups and began pouring them into random people's mouths. This elicited more screams from the crowd. She took a cup for herself and instead of pouring it in her mouth, poured it down her face and chest. Hanna's mouth couldn't get any wider.

"We have to get her down." They moved around the crowd to a different angle but still didn't get through. Emily began dancing to the music with beer all over her. In the last thirty minutes, she had more alcohol than her entire life combined but she didn't care. She was letting go of all of her stress and having fun. Paige had just come down the stairs when she heard all of the noise. As soon as she saw the cause, she bullied her way to the front, knocking people out of the way as hard as she could.

"Emily get down." She reached out her hand to the girl but was shooed away. A few of the guys tried to push Paige back but she wasn't having it. One of the newer swimmers jumped on the table with Emily and tried to grab onto her. Emily was obviously uncomfortable with this but he persisted. This was the last straw for Paige. She jumped on the now over capacity table and tried to push the guy away.

"Who is up there with her now?" Spencer tried to peek above everyone.

"I think it's Paige." Hanna answered. The guy didn't seem to want to let go and swatted Paige's hand out of the way.

"Hey buddy, you've had a little too much to drink let her go."

"Go away Paige. Isn't there some girl you should be hooking up with?" The crowd got hyped from Emily's response. Paige ignored it though. The guy got closer and put a hand on Emily's waist. Paige immediately removed it.

"You heard the girl go away." He pushed Paige in the shoulder. Paige didn't wait a second longer. She brushed his arm away with her left hand and socked him with her right. He fell off the table right into a group of people. She grabbed Emily's right arm and hoisted her over her shoulder. She jumped off the table, and the crowd split in half. The other girls saw where she was headed and met her on the other end. Paige walked right out the front door. Emily's purse was hanging by Paige's face now and she reached inside to see if her keys were there. She grabbed the fob and started clicking it. Close behind her, the other girls came running.

"Paige." Spencer shouted in her direction. The girl turned to face her, Emily still strewn across her shoulder.

"Have any of you had any alcohol?" They all shook their head no. Paige threw the keys to her own car towards Spencer.

"Drive everyone else home in my car, it's parked over there. I am going to take Emily back to her house in hers. I will get mine in the morning." The tone in her voice had a finality to it and they left towards Paige's car. Meanwhile, Paige tried to situate Emily in the front seat of her car. She was able to put the seat belt on but there was a struggle.

"Can you be still for five seconds?"

"I can drive myself." Paige gave her an incredulous look. She got into the driver's side and began the trip back to Emily's house. On the way, Emily had mostly passed out. Paige figured that Mrs. Fields was asleep so she would just sneak Emily in using the spare key. The trip didn't take long and she pulled into the side drive way. She unbuckled Emily and pulled her out in a basket cradle. She looked at the house and no lights were on. She made it to the porch before she had to readjust and put Emily down. She pulled out the house key and tried to unlock the door while holding Emily up. It wasn't working well and she made a lot more noise than she intended to. She finally got the door open and picked Emily up again. She made it across the threshold and kicked the door closed behind her. Being in the fresh smelling house made it more evident how badly Emily reeked of alcohol. Paige climbed the stairs carefully and didn't hear any movement from Mrs. Field's room. She pushed Emily's door open and laid the girl on her bed. In the top drawers, there were several sets of pajamas. Paige decided on shorts and a t shirt that would be easy to put on. She set the girl up straight but without her being awake, nothing productive was happening.

"Hey Em, you have to wake up now. Just for a minute okay?" Emily shook her head slightly but was still mostly asleep. Paige slowly unzipped the back of her dress and pulled it over her head.

"Babe I think I'm too tired for this tonight." A lump formed in Paige's throat. She ignored what Emily was saying and tried to focus on the task at hand. She put the clean t-shirt on her and then tried to maneuver the shorts. She got them up to her thighs but needed her to stand up. She pulled her up and while she was adjusting her shorts, Emily's face laid in the crux of her neck. Emily began nuzzling her neck which made Paige's hair stand on end. Paige began to set Emily back down but Emily latched on to her arms. She began to kiss in the same spot she was nuzzling before.

"Emily you need to go to sleep." She tried to pry her off of her but it wasn't working very well. She pushed a little harder than expected and they both ended up falling on to the bed Paige landing on top. Their faces were inches apart. Paige began to push herself off the bed but Emily's hands found their way around her neck and pulled her down into a kiss. It was messy and tasted like cheap beer.

"Em stop." Paige tried to say in between their movements. She finally broke away. This is not how she wanted things to go with them. Emily looked frustrated but Paige knew that would quickly pass when she realized how tired she was. Paige pulled the sheets out from under Emily and ushered her in. The girl reluctantly got into them and Paige covered her up. By the time she had everything situated, Emily was asleep again. Paige breathed a sigh of relief. She leaned over the bed and gently kissed the top of Emily's head. She went to leave but realized that it would be irresponsible to leave Emily alone. She had no idea how much the girl had to drink and didn't know if she could have alcohol poisoning or something. She decided to keep watch. She grabbed an extra blanket from the end of the bed and sat in the windowsill. She watched as Emily slowly breathed in and out thinking that she could spend the rest of her life just watching the other girl breathe.

TBC


	10. Back on the Horse

A/N One of you lovely people gave me a really good idea of how to go with this. I am trying to weave as much of what is happening on the show into this as well. There is just so much going on it is really difficult.

Emily woke up with a massive hangover and an extremely blurry memory. She pulled the covers off of herself and looked down at the new clothes she was wearing. _These are definitely not what I went out in_, she thought to herself. She tried to get up but the combination of light and gravity made her feel sick. She steadied herself on her night table and almost knocked over the glass of water sitting there. She steadied the glass and noticed the medication sitting next to it. She grabbed the two pills that were next to the water and jugged those down. With that accomplished, she patted around her bed for her phone. It wasn't in the normal folds of the blankets or under her pillow. She then looked over at her desk and saw it plugged in to her charger, a task she didn't remember doing. She tried to get up again, being more successful this time, and grabbed her phone. The long list of texts, missed calls, and mentions made her want to throw the phone out the window. She started with the most recent ones. The girls asked if she got home safe and said they wanted to meet up later. Her mother had called her a few times throughout the night before. She then switched over to her mentions and almost fell over. She had been tagged in a photo where she was standing on top of a table, surrounded by people, seemingly dancing. The picture had been liked over a hundred times. Before she could react further, the door to her room opened.

"Hey honey, you got in late. I thought you were staying at Hanna's." Emily had to quickly think of a lie but nothing was coming to her because her alcohol addled brain.

"I ended up getting caught up with some stuff and someone dropped me off." Pam's face said that she knew Emily was lying. If the girl's avoidance to light wasn't signal enough, the slight reek of alcohol gave Emily away.

"Are you sure that's the story you want to go with?" Pam crossed her arms and gave Emily a stern look. After a brief stare off, Emily conceded.

"We went to a party last night and I had a little bit more to drink than I should have."

"Honey, you're 18 any drink is bad. And I'm pretty sure you had more than just a little bit too much."

"How do you know?"

"Call it's a mother's intuition…and I saw Paige carrying you up the stairs last night." The mention of Paige's name made a few memories pop up. Emily grabbed her temple trying to slow the head rush she just got.

"She left this morning. It had to have been about five."

"Did you talk to her?" Emily sounded mortified.

"She was getting some water, I'm assuming for you, and I ran into her in the kitchen. She apologized about a hundred times for not telling me she was there. Then, she asked me where the motrin was and reassured me that she slept in the window nook." Emily laid back down on her bed, face forward, and clung the nearest pillow to her face. Pam sat down next to her and rubbed her back.

"Why do things have to be so complicated?" Emily screamed into her pillow.

"You're only in high school; things haven't even started to get complicated yet." Emily almost busted out laughing at this comment. If only her mother new the extent of the things she had been through.

"Is it about Paige or Allison?" Her mother said knowingly.

"Both." Emily sat back up.

"I think I just ruined everything." She tried holding back the tears that were threatening to spill out but it was no use.

"What happened?" Emily didn't know how to tell her mom the truth without actually telling her the truth.

"When we first found out Allison was alive, we were trying to protect her. I told Paige about Allison and then she turned around and told the police." It was what happened, she just left out the part of who they were protecting Allison from.

"Honey, I'm biased but Paige did the right thing. And the next time I see her I am going to thank her. What would have happened if the person who Allison escaped from found her and you? If I ever lost you, I wouldn't be able to survive." Emily launched at her mother, embracing her in a hug.

"Is this why you and Paige broke up?" Emily bit her lip afraid to continue.

"It isn't the only reason. I used to really like Allison…like love her like her. And I thought that maybe she felt the same way. Since she has been back, we've had these moments where I thought maybe she wanted to be with me."

"So you used Paige telling the police as an excuse so you could break up with her and be with Allison." Emily nodded.

"But last night I had this epiphany about why I was so hell bent on getting Allison to love me. She was the first girl I ever thought about romantically. But she used that against me to make me do what she wanted. It's like my whole identity was built on a lie. Every relationship I've had she is just sitting there in the back of my mind telling me I'm not good enough and that they probably don't actually want me. I figured that if I could prove she has always loved me, then I could validate myself. But I don't need to validate myself. I don't need Allison telling me that I can be in love with someone or how much they are in love with me." She was slightly winded by the confession she was giving.

"This all sounds good. Why are you saying everything is ruined?"

"Because I broke up with Paige over all of this and last night I saw her kissing this awful junior who isn't even pretty...and the worst part is I think she was actually enjoying herself. She is never going to take me back after all of this." Pam pulled the girl in tighter, continuing to rub circles on her back.

"Paige loves you, she will take you back."

"Mom you don't understand. Allison used to make Paige's life hell. She bullied her our entire freshman year and Paige almost didn't make it through it. I know Ali has changed and she has been through a lot but she did a lot of horrible things. Until last night, I didn't even think about how hard it must be for her to have Ali back. If I was her, I wouldn't forgive me." Emily began to cry harder.

"Give her time. She'll understand. You are all just teenagers, this is normal." Pam could see this wasn't reassuring her.

"Why don't you ask Hanna what to do. She probably is better at this than me. Here…" She pulled out some cash from her pocket. "Go get lunch and your nails done and try not to worry so much. If it meant to be, it will work out." They stayed curled up together for a few more minutes. When Pam left, Emily got her phone and texted Hanna. They planned to meet at the Brew after Emily had slept off some of her hangover.

Paige had spent the morning going over the interview from the night before. The only solid lead she had was a horse ranch thirty minutes away. She knew she needed more proof to pursue this further and the interview could have been a fake and could mean nothing at all. She decided to ask for help and bring someone else into the fold of her plan. When she first got the idea to include him, it was 7 in the morning which would be impossibly too early for him. She waited until eleven and made the call. Like most people in Rosewood, he took till the last ring to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hey Caleb, it's Paige."

"Hi Paige." She could tell he was surprised by her call.

"I know this is kind of out of the blue but can we meet up today?"

"Yeah, I'm with Hanna right now but she is headed to the brew soon, do you just want to meet there?"

"That is perfect….oh and bring your laptop." She quickly hung up so she couldn't get any opposition.

Emily got to the Brew early and ordered the largest cup of coffee possible. She sat in a booth by the front and waited for Hanna. It wasn't long before she and Caleb sauntered through the door. Caleb excused himself to get their drinks and Hanna sat down across from Emily.

"So what's up?" Hanna tried to be as nonchalant as possible..

"Have you looked at instagram this morning?" Hanna shook her head but the grin on her face gave her away.

"Hanna! What the hell happened last night?" Emily playfully shoved the other girl in the shoulder.

"I remember the whole party up until I split from Ali. Then everything is one big blur of alcohol."

"Do you want me to tell you or show you?"

"Show." Hanna pulled out her phone and pulled to a video that someone had sent her. She handed it to Emily and waited for her to go through the short clip. Even without volume, Hanna could tell what part Emily was on based on her facial expressions. Her face turned redder and redder until she finally just put the phone down.

"I can't watch anymore." Hanna picked up the phone and tried to press play again.

"You're going to miss the best part." Emily tried to put her hands in the way but Hanna held them down.

"Hanna I am done watching me humiliate myself."

"Can you shut up and just watch?" Emily conceded and held the phone and continued to watch. She saw as another figure jumped on the table and started dancing on her. She wanted to turn it off again but stuck with it. Then she watched as a third person came into the picture.

"Is that…"

"Shhhh." Hanna interrupted. She couldn't hear what was going on but she could see the two people were in an argument. She saw the boy's arm invade Paige's space and did not expect what happened next. She flinched at the punch but quickly put her finger to the screen to play it back. After a few times, she let the video play through. The person videotaping stopped when Paige threw Emily over her shoulder and began to walk out . Emily set the phone down in front of Hanna.

"Wow."

"So what caused you to go postal?" Hanna folded her hands like she was Emily's mother.

"That's actually why I called you here. I am having an existential crisis."

"If that means what I think it means, I'm all ears."

"Ironically, last night made a lot of things clear for me." As she started talking, Paige walked in the door, looking for Caleb. She saw Hanna in a seat close to the door but because of the side wall, she couldn't see who she was with. She made her way there and stopped when she recognized the voice that was talking. Instead of interrupting, she stayed on the other side of the wall listening. Luckily, it was a few inches taller than her, so the girls couldn't see.

"When you and Spencer were looking in Noel's stuff, Ali and I started talking. We have been avoiding each other for a while and I finally wanted answers. Even though she just got back, there have been things I haven't wanted to face since she left. I know we haven't really talked about this but I was in love with Allison. So with her coming back…I just wanted to know."

"What did she say?" Hanna interrupted.

"It isn't about what she said. It's what I figured out because of the whole situation. Even though our lives are crashing around us, I finally got a moment of clarity of what I want. My talk with Ali just made everything fall into place." Hanna was slightly confused because Emily wasn't being clear.

"So you got drunk because Allison helped you figure out your life?"

"Yes…no…I got drunk because…" Before she could finish her phone buzzed. She looked down and saw the SOS on the screen from Spencer. She looked over to Hanna and realized that she hadn't gotten a text.

"Just give me a second, I need to call my mom she says it's an emergency." She slid out of the booth and made her way to the other side of the room. Paige heard the movement and pretended like she had just got there. She really just wanted to leave. If Emily had kept talking, she might have thrown up.

"Hey Paige." Caleb noticed her before she could run away. He started to walk towards her. Hanna turned her head and saw Paige standing right within hearing distance.

"Paige…how long have you been there?"

"Long enough."

"Paige…" Paige didn't let her finish.

"Come on Caleb, can we still talk." She avoided Hanna completely and led Caleb to the farthest reaches of where the other girls were sitting.

"So why did I need to bring my computer?" Paige looked around before she started.

"I need your help breaking into the Rosewood Police department's electronic records." Caleb was surprised at how blunt Paige was.

"Paige, what are you getting yourself into? It seems like since I got back a new disaster happens every day. Hanna almost died and then she went to a party last night like nothing happened." Paige took a breath before deciding her next words. There would be no going back.

"I know, Caleb. Who do you think pulled her out of the fire?" It took a second for Caleb to process the information but as soon as he did he enveloped Paige in a bone crushing hug. On the other side of the room, Emily was getting off the phone with her "mom". She walked back over to Hanna, not even realizing that Paige had just been there.

"Hey Hanna, I actually have to go real quick, but can we talk later, I'm not finished?"

"I thought you were the one who wanted to do this?" Hanna seemed a little off put.

"I have to take care of something but I promise we will talk. I really need your advice." Emily scurried out the door and left Hanna alone at the table. Caleb had finally let go of Paige, and she began filling him in on all the information she knew thus far and what she had been able to do with it. She also showed him the police transcript so he would know why she wanted to break into the electronic database.

"I want to see if this is real or not."

"If Mona wanted you to find it, it's probably not." Paige had thought about that but she also knew that Mona would give legitimate pieces of evidence if they made her look less guilty.

"I don't know. I think this is something to pursue. I think Mona wanted them to find it so they would look into Melissa instead of somebody else but the girls don't have this. That means they can still focus on the list of names and we can track down this lead. And I think…" Paige stopped because Caleb was giving her the "cut it" motion with his hand to his neck. She turned around and saw Hanna approaching.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"The weather." Caleb blurted out. Paige and Hanna both just stared at him.

"We were talking about the possibility of Mona giving us a real lead with this interview. And by now, Spencer has probably already located every person on that list, their birth date, and what they had for breakfast this morning." Hanna laughed and sat down with them.

"Wait, you know about Paige?" Caleb still hadn't caught up to the conversation.

"Come on Caleb, who else on this earth would actually want to help us and is smart enough to not get caught?" Paige bit her lip to hold back a laugh.

"You figured it out before Spencer?"

"Don't act so surprised. I can put two and two together."

"And I reeked of chlorine when I pulled her smartass out of a fire." Paige added.

"Paige!" Hanna punched her in the arm.

"Forget about the details. The important thing is that everyone here is on the same page and side. We have to operate above both Mona and the other girls. If Caleb finds these files in the police database then the next move is to go where they lead."

"Which is…?"

"There is a horse ranch 30 miles away that Melissa Hastings and Bethany both used. They would go with Allison's mother on the weekends. Apparently, the last time they went there Allison's mom and Bethany got in a huge argument. It was the day before Bethany ran away."

"Woah" was all Hanna could say.

"Do you think anyone is actually going to remember anything up there?"

"Do we really have any other option?" They both shook their head no.

"Well I will get started then; it's going to take me some time." Caleb got out his computer and began working on accessing the police station across the street.

"Then I'm going to get something to drink."

"I'll come with." Hanna jumped up behind Paige. They walked over to the counter and Paige ordered her usual coffee.

"About what you heard…"

"Hanna it's none of my business. We aren't together and I am not trying to get her back. But at least I have an answer."

"Paige…" Hanna reassuringly rubbed her arm. "…it'll get better." Paige grabbed her coffee and started to drink it.

"You know they always say the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else." She spit out what she hadn't swallowed.

"Hanna I'm not interested in getting under someone else right now. It's not like there is any time either. I could be working on finding A 24 hours a day and I would still need more time. I'm just going to put my emotions in a little compartment and I'll deal with them when all of this is said and done." Hanna was not very happy by that statement and they headed back to Caleb.

"Done."

"Done?"

"Done." Caleb cockily smiled.

"I thought you said this would take a while?" Paige sat down next to him so she could see the computer. He had a file pulled up with the same time stamp and the identical information.

"When I said a while, I actually meant a few minutes…This stuff looks legit. I have no idea how they got it but it's a real police document."

"I guess we are going to the stables. Do you want to meet at my house at around 7?"

"Who is involved in this "we"? Caleb asked.

"Just Hanna and I. Not to be sexist, but two girls are more likely to get information if they don't have a guy with them."

"Fine."

A few hours later, Hanna and Paige were parked just outside of the stables. Paige purposefully parked under a tree line just in case. They made their way to the front offices. Paige was dressed appropriately in jeans and tennis shoes, but Hanna looked uncomfortable in camo pants and army boots. She looked completely out of place especially since she couldn't stop swatting bugs away from her.

"Can you chill, or do I need to leave you in the car?" Hanna put her arms at her side to show compliance. They walked in the front door and were greeted by an empty room. There was a desk in the front and a bell on top. Hanna didn't hesitate and ran up to ring the bell. Paige was too late to grab her and the chime went through the whole office.

"Smooth." They were about to leave when one of the back offices opened. A girl in her late teens walked out. She had dark brown hair and couldn't be more than five-five. Her plaid shirt was tucked into her pants and her jeans were worn from actual work, not a manufacturer.

"Can I help you?" She smiled at them.

"Yeah…the horses…can we talk about the horses…that you have." Hanna looked at Paige with her head halfcocked.

"Sorry, my friend here sometimes can't speak when pretty people are in the room." The girls face got instantly red, as did Paige's.

"When I was younger, my fried used to come here and ride and she just couldn't say enough nice things about it. It took me a few years but I finally decided to come take a look."

"Who's your friend?" The girl came around from the desk and stood in between the girls.

"Bethany Young." The girl's body instantly tensed.

"I don't think I know that name. I haven't been doing the riding work for that long though." They both knew she was lying.

"If she is here because of her friend, why are you here? Are you just that good of a girlfriend?" Paige had used a line like this before; the girl was fishing for her sexuality and availability.

"No." Paige and Hanna said in tandem.

"I'm just a good friend."

"I'm not her type anyways. She's more into girls with dark hair." Paige wanted to hit Hanna. The girl turned more in Paige's direction, pleased by the information she was hearing.

"So have you ridden before?" She flirtily twirled a piece of her hair. Paige made eye contact with Hanna to hopefully telekinetically transmit and plan. Luckily, Hanna was so used to the "distract the employee" play that she knew what Paige was going to do.

"It's been a while actually. I'd love to have a look around though. The horse I used to ride was a little girly for me. I felt like I was prancing around." She laughed.

"What's wrong with prancing?" The girl was unconsciously getting closer to Paige. Hanna was able to get out of her line of vision and she pointed to the back rooms. Paige got the message loud and clear.

"There's nothing wrong with prancing. I just like the raw experience of riding. Horses should be unbridled and allowed to run."

"So you want to just jump on the back of horse and run around. You've got a wild spirit." She bit her bottom lip, hoping that Paige would push it farther.

"I guess you could say…" She leaned a little closer so it was just above a whisper. "…I like it rough."

Paige was just playing along but she could tell the girl was hooked. Hanna gave her an incredulous look but behind the judgment she was thoroughly impressed at Paige's game. She thought that Emily had to be the one who made the moves in the relationship but this interaction put Paige in a whole new light.

"I'm Kara by the way." She reached out a hand and Paige took it.

"Paige…and that's Hanna." She nodded towards the other girl but Kara didn't seem to care.

"Well, let me give you a tour of the place. Usually my dad would do it but he is dealing with some other girls out by the barn." She waved a hand towards the door to lead them out.

"Actually, do you have a bathroom I could use?" Hanna asked.

"Yeah, it's in the back. We'll just wait here." When she looked away, Hanna gave Paige a pleading look.

"Why don't we go on without her? Maybe you can give me the private tour first." She gave her signature half smile.

"Yeah." Kara said dreamily. She started towards the door and Paige looked back to Hanna again. Her eyes said "save me" but she knew this had to be done. Hanna gave her two thumbs up. She mouthed something but Paige couldn't exactly make it out. Hanna realized this and began to act it out. She pretended to ride a horse and continued to mouth 'get back on the horse'. Paige finally realized what she was saying and rolled her eyes. She quickly followed behind Kara, hoping that she would be able to charm some more information out of her.

TBC

**A/N I will have another update tomorrow. This was becoming a very long chapter and it still addresses some important things. It's funny because I thought that there were too many things happening all at once and then I looked back at the show and this exactly how it happens. These events are daily occurrences and they act like it's nothing. See you again tomorrow!**


	11. Peaches

A/N I have everything mapped out for the next few installments. I really think this will be better than what the show is going to do. It has an actual conclusion btw I have loved the reviews so far. They make me so happy because it shows people really care about the work. Thanks!

"So what year are you?" They had just passed through the first gate of the ranch and Kara was trying to make small talk.

"I'm a senior. You?"

"Same." She smiled.

"Do you know where you're going next year? I have it boiled down to a few schools but this is my future so you know."

"I got a swimming scholarship to Stanford." Paige tried to make her statements as concise as possible. She wanted information but she didn't want to lead the girl on more than she already had. In another time, Kara would be Paige's exact type. She was petite but obviously muscular. She obviously took good care of herself and was independent. Her hair was the kind that could be put in any way and still look great. Right now it was in a messy pony tail and she was still prettier than 90% of the people she saw a regular basis. The attraction was there but the intention wasn't.

"That's amazing. This is going to sound super weird but that's actually in my final list. I just got my acceptance letter from them and Yale." Paige was surprised by this. The girl didn't come off as a person who would want to go to an Ivy League school. She didn't even want to go to it, really. She imagined the place crawling with Spencers.

"That is weird. What school do you go to? I haven't seen you around at all."

"I'm actually home schooled. I work on the ranch so much it was easier and I have been able to get in a lot more classes that way. I think I really defy the stereotype that home school people are weird and can't socialize with others."

"Are you sure about that?" Paige joked. The other girl lightly shoved her in the arm.

"Hey I will turn back around and stop this tour right now." She pretended to walk away but Paige grabbed her hand.

"I'm just joking. I would love to see the rest of the tour." Paige didn't realize she hadn't removed her hand yet and quickly pulled away, much to Kara's dismay.

"There isn't much left actually. The main barn is up there. I think my dad is probably almost done with the other girls. We usually don't get people on Sundays so we don't have many of the horses out." They walked the rest of the way up the hill and started to round the corner when Paige saw them. She quickly spun herself around and pulled Kara with her.

"You know Hanna is probably completely lost; we might want to go back and get her." The other girl didn't really understand why Paige had become so nervous all of a sudden.

"My dad is right there, let's meet him real quick and then we'll go find her." Paige knew if they went that way nothing good could come from it. Emily and Spencer weren't 20 feet from her and they would definitely have questions. Questions she didn't have answers to.

"You don't know Hanna. Five seconds alone and she might fall into a well." Kara conceded and they started to walk back to the office. Hanna had been going through all of the documents in the main building. Luckily, they were very organized so it wasn't hard to find anything. The first file she pulled was Melissa. She looked for one for Young but couldn't find anything. When she pulled out Mrs. D file, she saw another one behind it with the same last name. She thought it would be Allison but when she opened it up, she was shocked to see it was for Bethany but her last name was marked as Dilaurentis. She took all the papers out and went over to the copier. She copied every detail and didn't even try to read anything. She put everything back in the folder and put the new scans in her bag. She looked around a little more but didn't think there would be any other information of use. She turned to leave when she noticed a few pictures on the wall. They all looked like normal family photos but one stood out to her. She snapped a picture of it with her phone and slid out the door. She was just in time too because the front door jingled open. She pretended to be on the phone.

"No Mom, I said I was with Paige at the horse ranch not the dude ranch. I've got to go." She threw her phone back into her purse.

"Sorry, did I miss the whole thing?"

"Kind of but don't worry we saved the best for last. Paige didn't want to go on without you."

"What's the best part?" Hanna asked. Kara walked around the desk and into a back closet. The girls could hear her rifling through some things. When she appeared again, she had two helmets in her hand.

"We are actually going riding." Hanna's face dropped. Her clothes were not meant for riding. Paige picked up on this but thought it would be fun to make Hanna go outside her comfort zone.

"This is going to be so much fun, right Hanna? She has been talking about getting back on the horse all day." Hanna gave her a wry look at the double entendre. Kara reached out a helmet to her and Hanna took it with a faux smile. She didn't notice though because she was too busy moving on to give Paige her helmet. They walked out the door and headed towards the back stable. Paige saw three gigantic horses already saddled. It was starting to get dark and there was probably only an hour left of good light. Kara was walking a few yards ahead of them and Hanna took this opportunity to converse quietly with Paige.

"I got what we needed, let's scram." She pleaded.

"I think Kara knows more than she is letting on. Maybe we can get something out of her if she thinks we are trustworthy." Kara walked into the stable and signaled for them to wait there.

"Is that what this is really about? Don't forget I was a witness to the flirt fest that happened twenty minutes ago." Paige glared at her.

"I was not flirting; I was investigating."

"Do all of your investigations end in eye sex?"

"Hanna!" Paige prayed Kara couldn't hear them.

"I'm just saying, she was undressing you with her eyes. Maybe this is exactly what you need, no strings attached fun. When was the last time you talked to a person who hasn't had a near death experience in the last year?" Paige didn't have an answer. Her first thought was Sydney but she still went to Rosewood High which meant she was either involved with or knew what had been happening.

"I would give anything to have a conversation with someone that didn't end with a plan to avoid getting killed. I bet she talks about things like sports or cooking. I wonder what her favorite TV show is."

"Then why don't you go out with her?" Paige replied.

"I don't speak the vagina monologues or I totally would. Why do you think I liked Travis so much? He was normal. The only reason we aren't together is because I am still in love with Caleb."

"And I'm still in love with Emily." Paige countered.

"Yeah but Caleb is in love with me too." Hanna had let her mouth get ahead of her brain.

"Paige…I'm sorry. I didn't…" Paige put her hand up to stop the rambling.

"It's fine. You don't have to apologize for the truth. You're right though, maybe I need to have some fun." Their conversation ended when Kara had come back with the rest of the gear for the horses.

"Alright let's get the helmets on and we are almost ready." Hanna lightly place hers on her head, careful not to mess up her hair. Paige went to put hers on but it was slightly too small. Kara recognized this and unbuckled the one on her head.

"Here, you can wear mine." She placed in on top of Paige's head and buckled it under her chin. She tightened the strap slightly and adjusted the helmet forward.

"Perfect." She whispered. She put the other helmet on her head and headed towards the horses.

"Okay so put your left foot in the stirrup and then swing your right leg all around the back of the horse while holding on to the saddle." She got Hanna on the first horse with some difficulty. Paige didn't wait for her assistance and got on the next horse. The mare was a beautiful black with one white tuff on the top of the nose. She gently rubbed the horse's neck, eliciting a happy noise from the beast.

"I think you were lying about your horse experience." Kara inspected the saddle.

"I said it had been a while, not that I had never done it."

"Whatever you say." She opened the gate and proceeded to mount her own horse. Paige looked up at the skies and was worried that a storm might be coming. It wasn't unusual for quick weather patterns to come through unexpectedly.

"Hanna you are going to want to hold the reign in your right hand. Peaches will follow me no matter what but if you want to go left just pull to the left. If you want to go faster just put your heel lightly into her side." Hanna gave her a terrified thumbs up. Paige grabbed the reigns and maneuvered her horse next to Kara's. She didn't lie to Hanna, she really did want to get more information from the girl, she just didn't know how to broach the subject.

"So what's your story? All I have so far is you are super smart, home schooled, and a horse expert. That isn't much to go on." Kara looked behind her to make sure Hanna was still there and led them on to a nearby path.

"Well what to do you want to know?"

"Favorite color?"

"I give you the opportunity to ask me anything and that is what you lead with?" She laughed.

"It's a very important question. This could change the whole course of everything." Paige put on a very serious tone.

"Red…" She tried to read Paige's face. "Did I pass?"

"The jury is still out." The path they were going down was beautiful. The trees let just enough sunlight in to reflect off of the small pools of water on the ground. It was so peaceful and it smelled like freedom. They rode in silence admiring the beauty of their surroundings.

"I could live out here."

"A lot of people say that. I guess I've gotten used to it but sometimes I still get that feeling you are getting now. When I was younger, my friend and I used to pretend we owned these woods and we were like the queens. We even had these crowns made out of weeds and a fort with all of the cool things we collected."

"Why "used to"? You're never too old to be a queen." Paige tried to give her a reassuring smile but the girl's face was sullen.

"She…moved away and I never had the heart to keep it up without her." Paige was about to console her but she felt the first drop of rain. They had only been riding for twenty minutes or so but she knew a storm was coming.

"Let's head back." Kara sped up the pace of her horse and they reached the open pasture minutes later. The sky had turned completely dark and the setting of the sun didn't help. They were headed towards the barn when the first crack of thunder bellowed through the sky. Both Paige and Hanna's horse kicked up, leaning them all the way back. Paige had experienced this before and was prepared but Hanna wasn't. She held onto the horse for dear life and was lucky she didn't fall off. Kara quickly dismounted and grabbed the reigns, calming Peaches down. Unfortunately, Hanna's bag had fallen and the contents sprayed across the field.

"I'm going to walk these two in. Can you pick this up?" Paige nodded and dismounted her horse. She quickly threw everything into Hanna's bag but the wind started to blow a few of the papers away. She finally collected everything when another roll of thunder came through, followed by a flash of lightening. That's when the rain started to really come down. Paige zipped up Hanna's bag and put it within her own to protect the papers. She looked ahead and could see the two girls headed into the stable. She grabbed the reigns of her own horse and began to lead her in when she heard a scream coming from the top of the hill. She thought it might have just been her imagination and kept walking.

"Help!" The last call was definitely not in her head. She quickly mounted the horse and made her way the five hundred feet to the main stable. In the time it took her to get there, the sky grew darker and the screams louder. Inside the stable, Spencer and Emily were trapped in one of the stalls. The door was locked behind them and the horse in the next stall was not very happy.

"Spencer we have to get out of here." Emily yelled.

"I am trying here." She began propping a board between the stalls and the door, hoping the impact of the horse would bust through the hinge.

"I hear someone coming." Emily stood on a bucket to look above the wall. As she did, a horse and rider came into view. A crack of lightening flew through the air and the horse kicked its front legs powerfully in the air. The rider held on, with one hand securely on the reign and the other reached out in the air for balance. Emily couldn't make out their figure because darkness had once again over taken the scene.

"Help!" She yelled out to them. Paige tried to steady herself on the horse. It finally calmed down enough to have all four hooves on the ground. She swung off of them and headed towards the door calling for help. Before she could get there, the nearest horse kicked forcefully at the barrier. This caused a chain reaction and the post Spencer had meant to open the door broke in half hitting her in the corner of the face. The whole thing made Emily completely black out. Spencer couldn't see anything and was trying to feel her way around. Paige quickly opened the door and guided Spencer out the door. For the second time in a few days, she threw Emily over her shoulder and carried her out too. Spencer was trying to open her eyes to see who had pulled them out but one was swollen shut and the other didn't seem to want to work. Paige noticed that the other girl was having vision problems and decided to use this to her advantage. She made her voice deep and tried to distort it as much as possible.

"Where are your keys?"

"In her pocket." Paige tried to maneuver herself to reach into Emily's pocket but was struggling. She managed to pull them out and walked towards the edge of the barn. She clicked the button and saw the light flash not far off.

"Grab my elbow." Paige demanded. Spencer obliged and Paige led them into the rain towards Emily's car. The girl on her shoulder began to stir. She unlocked the car and led Spencer into the passenger's side first. She went around the other way and placed Emily in the front seat. The girl was almost completely conscious but the event took a slight toll.

"When she wakes up make sure you get your eye looked at." She reached around and turned the car on, putting on the heat as well.

"Will you be alright?" Spencer nodded.

"Thank you." Paige had never heard Spencer sound so vulnerable. She shut the door and ran back to the horse she left behind. She mounted it and looked back to the car. Emily had come to and was adjusting to her new surroundings. She looked out the front window and watched as the stranger rode off again. She wanted to get out of the car and run after them but she took one look at Spencer and knew they needed to get out of there. Paige made it back to the other stable, completely soaked. Hanna and Kara were sitting on stools in the back. When she finally jumped off the horse, Hanna came running to her.

"Are you okay? What took so long?" Paige handed her the very wet bag.

"I was chasing after your crap. How many make up products could one person possibly put on their face?" Although her voice sounded truthful, her eyes told a different story. Hanna picked up on this but would wait till later to question her.

"Paige I am so sorry. I didn't realize this would turn into you getting soaked." Paige laughed at her current state. There wasn't a dry piece of clothing on her. Luckily, swimming had prepared her for such occasions. She took off her helmet and shook out her hair.

"Let me at least get you a towel." Kara walked into a separate room. Paige went to put the helmet down but paused. She pulled back the flap on the inside of the helmet where there was a name scrawled on the inside. She wiped away some of the water that had accrued there and the name was clear…_Bethany_. It couldn't be a coincidence. Kara came out with a fresh towel and Paige traded her with the helmet. It seemed like every lead they got added a dozen more questions. She needed a way to really talk to this girl. There really was only one choice. Paige bit her lip and swayed back and forth on her heels.

"I guess you're going to have to make this up to me." Kara blushed.

"Does that mean I passed?" She teased.

"It means I'll give you my number." Paige got out a pen from her bag and grabbed the girls arm. She used the towel to mark off a dry spot and scrawled her ten digit number.

"We better go though. This storm is probably only going to get worse." Paige turned around without looking back and signaled for Hanna to follow. They left the girl in the barn and practically ran to the car. Once in, they both started to say something but stopped.

"You go first."

"Spencer and Emily were here. I think someone trapped them in the barn."

"What?" Hanna wasn't told anything by the girls about following this lead. She ignored it for now. "I got some really interesting information about Bethany. I think Kara knows her."

"I completely agree. The helmet she gave me had Bethany's name in it." Paige searched through her bag and pulled out her burner phone. Luckily the area it was in didn't get drenched in rain.

"What are you doing?" Hanna asked.

"I'm texting Spencer and Emily about being careful." She flipped the phone open to start the message.

"This is kind of weird being on the other end of this. I wonder if this is what A does? They sit in a car in the middle of a storm and decide how to torture us. I bet they love this part. You know, making the message and seeing our reaction." Paige forgot how much this must hurt Hanna.

"I promise my intentions will always be good. I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable." She clicked send and put the phone away.

"Can we just get out of here?" Paige nodded and started up the car.

**TBC**


	12. Oh What a Night

A/N I probably won't update again this week . I am finalizing a presentation for an undergraduate research symposium.

Paige dropped Hanna off at her house and proceeded to her own. She desperately needed a hot shower and sleep. She ran into the house and went right for the bathroom. She let the water warm up and inspected herself in the mirror. As she peeled each layer of wet clothing off, she could see more and more of her recent battle scars. Her arm was healing nicely but the extended period of water exposure made it look fiery red. She turned to the side and traced the outline of a bruise that went from her rib cage to her shoulder. She assumed that was from throwing so many people over her shoulder recently. She extended her right leg out and wiped the dirt off that was covering a fresh mark from gripping the saddle to hard when the horse bucked. The last thing she examined was her face. She put her hands over her neck and cheeks and tried to spread out her skin to see any damage. Overall, there weren't any cuts or bruises but there was definite wear and tear. The bags under her eyes were worse than ever before and her skin had a pale dryness to it from inattentiveness. She stepped into the shower and let the hot water wash away all the physical and emotional dirt she had been building up. She didn't even want to begin the process of washing her hair. Fifteen minutes passed and the water was beginning to turn, forcing her to do something.

Across town, Hanna was finishing the same battle. She sat on her bed, with her hair half hazardly thrown into a wet bun, starring at her phone. She had multiple calls from Caleb that she was ignoring but that wasn't why she was transfixed with her phone. She hadn't a single message from any of the girls since she left Emily that morning. She couldn't remember the last time she had gone a whole day without a message about A or Ali. What was more worrisome was that they had pursued a lead without even telling her about it. She desperately wanted to send out an SOS or something but deep down she knew she probably didn't want to know the reason they were avoiding her. Recently, she had been off her game and she might have been a little loose with alcohol but they had never cut her off completely. After a silent war with herself, she threw the phone from her bed and curled up for sleep.

The next day, Hanna got to school early and waited by Paige's swim locker. She knew the girl would probably do an extra work out in the morning to make up for the last week. She was right and Paige came walking thirty minutes before eight, soaking wet. She was slightly startled by Hanna's presence but she didn't send her away.

"Good morning." She greeted. She rang her hair out over one of the drains and put her towel down as she got her bag out of her locker. When she did this, she revealed the scores of bruises and cuts that traced over her body.

"Holy shit, Paige! You look like you got in a fight with a ninja." Paige looked away self-consciously.

"Nope, just your average week in Rosewood; I cut my arm saving a girl I hate that my ex-girlfriend now has chosen over me. I bruised my ribs and back saving a clutz from a fire and my legs look like they were beaten because a horse almost threw me off it's back. All in all, I would say it's been a pretty easy week." She grabbed her clothes and went around the other side to change. Hanna continued to talk though.

"I think the girls are avoiding me." She admitted.

"Why would they be doing that? You guys are basically glued to the hip." Paige was struggling to get out of her suit with her muscles aching.

"I had no idea Spencer and Emily were going to be there yesterday. None of them told me anything. And on top of that, you said Spencer was really hurt. They didn't even call me to tell me about that." She threw her bag down on the bench and sat down next to it frustrated. Paige had finally gotten her suit off and was attempting to get dressed as quickly as possible.

"You are over thinking this. They are going to come in today and tell you all about it." She was balancing on one foot trying to put her leg through the pants hole. It was hard keeping up a conversation and trying to get dressed.

"What are we going to do about what we found out yesterday?"

"Well I have a date tonight so we…"

"What?!" Hanna giddily screamed. This scared Paige but she was already committed to putting her leg through the hole. She tried to balance herself but ended up falling backwards over the bench. Hanna heard the crash and quickly ran behind the lockers. Paige was sprawled with her pants halfway up with one leg straight in the air. Paige recovered and managed to slide the other leg in and arched her back off the floor to pull them all the way up. She accepted Hanna's hand and pulled herself up.

"Are you okay?" Paige threw on her shirt and picked up the towel now on the floor.

"I'm fine. I'd like to say that's the first time that's happened but I would be lying." She threw everything in her bag and walked around to her locker to put it in there.

"I'm going to meet up with Kara tonight and I'll try to get something out of her. You need to go talk to your friends and make up. This is not the time for the Scooby Gang to be at odds."

"I agree. Can we meet up tomorrow for a team meeting?"

"Team meeting?" Paige laughed.

"Now that I am officially team HP, I feel like an organized meeting might be useful."

"We'll see." She walked past the girl and headed for the door.

"Oh Paige, I forgot to show you what else I found yesterday." She pulled out her phone and scrolled to one of the pictures.

"This was hanging in the office." Paige took the phone and looked at the photo. It was a group shot of a few horses with 3 girls on the them and their parents standing to the side holding the reigns. Paige instantly recognized Kara in the middle and she assumed it was her father standing to her side. She used her fingers to zoom on the other four people. One girl looked vaguely familiar and the man standing with her had a hat covering his face. The girl looked older than the other two by at least three or four years. She scrolled to the left again and was met by a smiling face. The girl didn't look more than 14 and had blonde hair and a blue riding cap; the same riding cap Paige had been wearing the day before. Standing next to her was Mrs. Dilaurentis, who had a matching grin on her face. A passerby would see this photo and think it was a nice bonding experience between children and their parents but Paige knew there was something darker there.

"I only know half of these people."

"No, you know all of them." Paige gave her a quizzical look. "I do?" Hanna took the phone and situated herself beside Paige. She scrolled from left to right pointing out each person.

"That is Bethany Young. Next to her is Mrs. D. In the middle is Kara and her dad. And I'm almost a hundred percent sure this is Melissa Hastings. If that's true, I would bet anything that is her dad standing with her." Paige looked at the face to the right and it did look a lot like Melissa.

"This whole thing just got even more complicated, didn't it?"

"And I didn't even think that was possible." Hanna replied. Hanna and Paige both walked out together and towards the front hall. Hanna walked with her to her locker and then separated when she saw the girls down the hall. Spencer had big sunglasses on but Hanna could still see the mark on her face.

"Why were you talking to Paige?" Allison questioned.

"She let me borrow her notes and I was giving them back." Hanna was actually disappointed in herself at how quickly she could lie.

"What class do you two have together that we don't have with you?"

"No one seemed to want to talk to me yesterday so I reached out to whoever I could." Her voice dripped with disdain. When she woke up this morning, she didn't know how she was going to broach the topic of them ignoring her but Spencer just made it easy.

"What happened to your face Spencer?" She tried to make is sound like she didn't know what happened.

"I got hit in the face with a ball in field hockey practice." Hanna had given her the opportunity to come clean but she didn't. With that, Hanna decided to play with them.

"Wow that must have hurt. I'm surprised a ball did that…" She pulled the glasses slightly off of Spencer's face, running her finger over the bruise. "…it looks like you got kicked in the face by a horse." With that, she walked away towards her first class.

"Hanna wait." Spencer ran after here and pulled her into the nearest classroom. The other girls followed closely behind.

"How did you know I got kicked?" She said, almost accusingly.

"Obviously, it wasn't from you, my best friends, telling me." She folded her arms and tried to walk away. Aria and Emily formed a blockade and Hanna was forced to face them. She had to make something believable up.

"I got a text last night from our friend HP. Told me the whole story." Everyone seemed to believe her.

"Your turn, why didn't you tell me any of this?" She looked to Emily first because she was usually the easiest to crack.

"Han you have been acting weird lately and then Spencer noticed something with that picture and we thought you might have…" Emily could barely finish her statement.

"What Emily is trying to say, is that we thought you joined Mona to get rid of me. I know you haven't liked me since I've been back. On top of that, your obvious identity crisis kind of tipped us off."

"First of all, how could you ever think I would do anything to hurt any of you, ever? Second of all, what do you mean Spencer noticed something? Did I start wearing a black hoodie around and texting you threatening messages?" Hanna couldn't believe they would go behind her back instead of just talking to her. Everyone had gotten so used to lying that the truth didn't really exist. The lines between reality and fiction were so blurred they were beginning to live in a state of complete paranoia.

"The picture you sent me from Noel's party." Spencer started.

"What about it?"

"There is a person's thumb at the top corner of the page but it isn't yours. That means somebody had to of been holding the paper for you." Hanna was really backed into a corner at this moment. She either told the truth about Paige or try to say something remotely believable. She had learned from her years of experience that the perfect lie had to be specific and non-verifiable. It was also important to sell it, which she was about to do.

"Are you serious, right now? All you would have had to do was ask me and I would have told you. Caleb saw me sneaking into Noel's room and asked me what I was doing. I couldn't lie to him so I asked him to help. I know think he is a bad influence on me so I didn't tell you about it. He is the one holding the sheet for me." Hanna could tell the other girls were feeling guilty.

"I'm so sorry, I just thought…you never know who to trust." Spencer didn't know how to apologize.

"From now on, complete honesty, even if we don't like the questions or the answers." They all shook their head in agreement.

"Now why were you around horses yesterday?" Spencer began to fill her in on the events of the day before, starting from when Emily left Hanna at the coffee shop. She had called an emergency meeting at her house to discuss the mysterious thumb in the picture. When they met up, Aria also had news she had gotten from Radley. Mrs .Dilaurentis had spent a great deal of time and money with Bethany. The ranch was a pace they frequented almost every weekend since Bethany was at the institution.

"We thought that the owner might remember something but he didn't. We stuck around a while longer and looked around the stable but someone locked us in one of the stalls. It was storming out and this horse almost trampled us. I don't even know how but this person came up on this huge black horse and saved us. I tried prying the door open which is when I got kicked. We got to our car and they left. Twenty minutes later we got a text telling us to be careful around wild animals."

"If A is the devil then HP is our guardian angel." Aria added.

"Something like that" Hanna mumbled under her breath. The first bell rang which meant they had 5 minutes to get to class. Everyone left but Hanna was stopped by Emily's hand.

"Are we good?" Hanna smiled weakly and nodded.

"Of course, Em. If you want to finish that talk, we can meet later." Emily gave her an unexpected hug and Hanna melted into it.

"That would be wonderful."

"The brew?" Hanna asked.

"No, I want to go someplace else. Meet me at my house and we'll take my car. I owe you a fun night." They all dispersed from the classroom to their first periods.

Paige pulled out her phone after school to confirm her plans. She hadn't saved the girls number yet so it just pulled up with the Pennsylvania area code.

_I'm still picking you up, right?-P_

She thought it would take a few minutes for a reply but the response was instantaneous.

_Yes please! I hope you drive a car better than you ride a horse ;)-K_

Paige laughed at this. This girl was practically perfect in every way and was potentially going to her college. The pros column was severely outweighing the cons. But she knew, for now, the scale would be tipped the other way. She tried to think of a witty response but all of her ideas were either corny or over bearing. She decided not to respond at all and to get ready. She told the coach she needed another day of rest, which wasn't entirely a lie. When she got home, she rifled through almost every outfit she had. She knew she was going to wear her jeans and boots but the shirt was extremely important. She had no idea what Kara would be wearing which threw her off. She could always prepare for a date with Emily because she knew her style. Emily wore comfortable clothing that was never over the top. For all Paige knew, Kara would be coming out in a dress and stilettos. She also didn't want to come off as any particular type of person. If she wore her suspenders she might seem like a hipster gay. If she wore the button up, it might be too butch. Even her cut off shirts, sent off a weird sporty vibe. She didn't want to scare the girl away based on her clothing. When it came to lesbian stereotypes, Paige didn't think she fit into any category. She just dressed in what she liked at the time. For some people, clothing is an extension of their sexuality. For her, clothing made sure she didn't embarrass herself in public. She really didn't even know why she was worried about this. She didn't expect this to go farther. Still, in the back of her mind there was this "what if" voice playing with her emotions. _It's not even dinner, it's cheap bar food and crappy music_, she thought to herself. She finally grabbed a red v-neck and her leather jacket. It was simple, comfortable, and attractive. Looking at the clock, she realized she would be late if she didn't leave that moment. She had the perfect place to go that was unknown to 90 percent of all of Rosewood. She pulled into the same parking lot she was in the day before and shot a text. Moments later the front door opened and Paige was absolutely blown away. The girl had her hair down and curled, with torn jeans, cowboy boots and a blue blouse that plunged right at the neck line. Paige quickly scrambled out of the car and opened the passenger door.

"M'lady." She bowed chivalrously.

"Thank you kind ma'am. I do say the carriage service round these parts has been mighty fine this evenin'." Kara added a thick southern twang to her already country accent. Paige sincerely laughed and jumped in the driver's side.

"So where are we going? I usually am wary of people when they say it's a surprise, especially since I met you less than 24 hours ago."

"I was thinking I would take you out by the old mill and sacrifice you to the harvest moon." Paige tried to act serious but it didn't take long for her to start cracking up.

"Seriously, Paige!"

"We will be there in ten minutes, you'll just have to wait." The car ride was filled with music and little conversation. Paige pulled into the gravel parking lot of the bar and shut her car off.

"You really are going to kill me."

"Shut up and get out of my car." Paige went around and opened the car door for her and led her into the highway bar. It was loud and bright. There were practically no tables open because happy hour was about to start. Paige spotted a couple leaving and quickly dragged Kara in that direction. They slid into the booth and Paige waved down a waitress for drinks. They just got water but Paige had her fake ID if they wanted anything else.

"So this place is…interesting." Kara began.

"Just wait, the real fun is about to begin." The girl didn't understand what she was talking about until she heard the MC begin to speak.

"Ladies and Gentleman welcome to Karaoke night! I hope you brought your singing partners and to kick it off as always, we have Donnette singing a little Faith Hill." The aforementioned woman broke out into a pitchy version of _This Kiss._

"You brought me to karaoke. You definitely are getting bonus points. So what are we going to sing?" Paige slid out of the booth and grabbed a copy of the song list they had to choose from.

"I'm usually more of an alto but if I need to hit those Kelly Clarkson notes I might be able to."

"Dually noted." Kara flipped through the pages and kept going back and forth between a few songs.

"Any winners?" Paige had basically memorized the song list but was willing to let the other girl pick.

"I'm torn between 'Oh What a Night' by the four seasons and 'So What' by Pink. I know totally different genres but both so good." Paige did not want to bring up her past in front of the girl so she would have to veto Pink.

"I am a big Frankie Vallie fan. And it's a pretty good song for our current predicament."

"Oh really?" Kara wiggled her eyebrows and started to lean in closer. Paige pulled away though and went to submit their name. Luckily, no one had picked their song yet except them and the pitchy Faith Hill, who always went first.

"Can I get Paige and Kara to the mics please?" The MC shouted. Paige put her arm out and let Kara go first. They each picked up a mic and waited for the screen to come up. The song wasn't really meant to be a duet but they made it work. The first few drum measures started to play and Paige started dancing with the music, eliciting some cheers from the crowd. She could tell Kara was nervous so she started it off.

"Oh What a Night, late December back in 63…what a very special time for me, as I remember what a night." She started singing directly to the other girl, causing her to blush. She started to get into it and began the second verse. "Oh what a night, no I didn't even know her name, but I knew I'd never be the same, what a lady what a night." Paige turned her attention to the crowd. Everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves. She looked to the back and the door opened to even more people. The lines started to come down the screen and she almost missed it. "Oh I…" She paused seeing exactly who had just come through the door. Kara gave her a slight nudge and she kept going. "…got a funny feeling when she walked in the room. And I, as I recall it ended much too soon." Kara came in with the next chorus hitting all of the high notes perfectly. Paige couldn't take her eyes off the back of the room. She waited for the girl to look up. She halfheartedly kept singing trying to engage Kara as much as possible. Neither the girl or the crowd could tell that her attention was pulled in another direction. Emily set her coat down and slid across from Hanna. The voice playing the background sounded unbelievably familiar. She turned her head to the stage and couldn't believe what she saw.

**TBC**


	13. Get Out

A/N What up? Thanks for the lovely comments. Reviews are always welcome because they make me see people are still interested. This is a little more filler again but next chapter should be up tomorrow!

Paige let the last bars of the song play out. She decided in a moment of solidarity that she was going to have a good time, regardless of the people in the room. She grabbed Kara's hand and did an over exaggerated bow which drew large cheers from the crowd. She jumped off the stage and turned around to help the other girl. She grabbed her by the waist and plopped her down. They made their way over to the table they had left, oblivious to the other people around them. They slid into the booth opposite each other.

"So I am going to prevent this from getting awkward." Kara started.

"Why is this going to get awkward?"

"Come on, Paige. Every time you are first getting to know someone you start talking about the boring stuff and then you just sit there in silence until the food comes and then until someone pays the check."

"So what is your plan to get rid of this first date curse?" Paige didn't even think about what she just said. She threw the word "date" into the conversation when she really wanted to remain impartial.

"I say we play twenty questions. Not the yes or no kind but like sincere questions about our lives and interests."

"Okay…" Paige laughed. "what's your favorite book?" Kara looked almost offended.

"You can't ask me that. That's way too vague. What genre? American or international? What century?"

"You suck at your own game." Paige deadpanned.

"Fine, the Great Gatsby…wait no Catcher in the Rye. Both." Had she been asked the same question, Paige as sure she would have answered the exact same way. Those were both in the top ten list for her. The Catcher in the Rye used to be her Bible when she was an angsty 14 year old.

"My turn. When did you know you were gay?" Paige nearly spit out the sip of water she had just taken in. She let out a few light coughs trying to compose herself.

"You really go for the gold, don't you?" Paige shifted uncomfortably in her seat, trying to avoid direct eye contact. She failed though and was caught looking directly into her eyes. There were small gold flecks within the auburn that was simply beautiful.

"I could ask you want your favorite book is and I would get to see a little into your world but I want to know you." She reached across the table and put her hand over the girls. "I want to know what makes you tick. This is going to sound corny but I want to really see you, with all of your passions and dreams and with all of your fears and insecurities. We just met but I am drawn to something about you and if I don't get to the bottom of it, I'm going to drown." Paige completely melted into her words. No one had explicitly said something so romantic to her in her entire life. As she stared into the other girl's eyes, she was completely transfixed. They had the eerie quality of being simultaneously calming and mischievous. She didn't even care if this was just a line that she used on all the girls. To her, it felt special. For once, she was the thing that someone wanted to fight for. She realized she hadn't responded yet and began to speak when the waiter pulled up to their table to take their order.

A few seats back, Emily was having a slight meltdown of her own.

"Did you know she was going to be here? Who was that girl?" Hanna had been listening to the same questions for the past few minutes. All of which she responded no. She couldn't take it anymore and decided to throw her a bone.

"I know the girl's name." Emily stopped her conversation and gave her the "continue" look. Hanna decided to do what she did best and lie.

"When I went to get Paige's history notes, she told me to come to the park and she would have them in her car. She was running and I flagged her down so we could get them. Well, when I did that she got distracted and ran right into another runner. The other girl scraped herself up some so Paige gave her her number to make sure she was okay. That's all I know."

"Hanna what is her name?"

"Kara, I think." Emily began saying the name over and over again until it didn't seem like a word at all.

"I thought tonight was about us, do you still want to talk?" Emily was about to say something but they were interrupted by the waiter.

"So you're big story?" Kara started.

"It's not a big story. I just realized that I wasn't attracted to boys. There was this one girl who I thought was the most beautiful human God ever created. I got so caught up in my feelings that I ended up terrorizing her for a little bit. I didn't think she would ever feel the same way but it turned out she was gay too. Then one day after a meet, I kissed her and it was like all the stars in the sky exploded together. I can't even explain it to you. It was like breathing after you've been under water for too long…anyways six months later I told my parents and they were surprisingly okay."

"Wow, that girl must have been amazing."

"She was but she chose someone else." Paige replied sadly. She could feel a sudden flood of emotion and needed to exit the situation immediately.

"Can you excuse me for a second?" She made a beeline for the back door.

"Okay Em, now you can talk." Hann placed the menus in the holder.

"I'm sorry Hanna…I just need a minute." Emily moved out of the booth and made her way through the front door. The cool air hit her face and she instantly felt calmer. She looked down the side walk and saw another figure, seemingly needing air as well. The person turned around, and she saw her biggest fear. Before she could say something, the girl pulled her head up and their eyes met. Paige couldn't catch a break at the moment and had no intention of dealing with this. She wasn't so lucky because Emily marched herself over to her.

"Having a fun time?" she said sarcastically.

"No…" Paige defended. "You don't get to do that. Not anymore." Paige went to open the door but Emily stopped her with her hand.

"So, what now? You are just going to blow through every girl in town? First Maddie and this Kara person who you've known for a day." Paige didn't even have time to defend herself against Maddie because she was surprised Emily knew the other girl's name.

"How do you know Kara?"

"Hanna told me you guys met in the park. I guess it doesn't take much to get your number anymore."

"Emily you left me. You don't get a say in anything I do ever again. And why do you even care? Don't you have somebody's ass you should be kissing?" Paige didn't give her a second to respond. "What am I saying, you would rather be kissing their face, right?" Emily was left speechless.

"Do you know why I am out with Kara? Because I can have a normal conversation with her! We can talk about things. She doesn't start with guess what happened to Aria and end with I have to go SOS from Spencer. And do you know what else, she might go to Stanford."

"She sounds like the perfect girl for you." Emily spat back.

"No. You were the perfect girl for me, Em. But I was never enough for you." Tears started to slowly form in Emily's eyes. Paige opened the door and sat back down. She plastered on a fake smile and nervously adjusted everything in front of her.

"I think it was my turn. Biggest fear?" She turned her head as Kara began talking, watching out the window as Emily walked away.

Emily came back in the bar and immediately grabbed her stuff. She laid money on the table and began to walk away, not even acknowledging Hanna.

"Em where are you going?" Hanna also put money down and followed her friend out the door. Emily would still not respond but opened the doors to let Hanna get in.

"It's over." Emily said defeated.

"What's over?"

"Paige and me…me and Paige…us together. How did I mess this up so much? She is so genuine and I completely ignored her.

"Why do you even care? Yesterday you were team Ali all the way."

"What are you talking about?" Emily asked confused.

"When we talked you basically were waltzing rhapsodic about Allison and how she made you come to some big revelation that you were in love with her."

"Waxing Hanna, waxing rhapsodic…and the revelation I came to was that I want to be with Paige. That I have always wanted Paige." Hanna's face turned completely white. She had misread the whole situation and so had Paige. She didn't even know what to say.

"Emily I'm so sorry."

"What did you do?" Hanna knew she had to lie again but she wanted to include as much truth as possible.

"When I talked to Paige yesterday, she asked me if there was a chance with you and I said no. I told her about the conversation we had and that you wanted to be with Allison…I didn't know." Emily's face went through several different phases of shock, anger, and despair.

"Get out." Her voice was cold and firm.

"Em." Hanna pleaded.

"Get out of my car Hanna before I do something worse." Hanna opened the door and slid out. She stood in front of the parking space and Emily peeled out. Hanna was fighting back tears realizing that she had probably ruined her relationship with Emily and would probably also ruin her relationship with Paige. She was in the middle of nowhere and knew she needed to go back inside and find the girl. She went back in and sought out their booth. Kara saw her first.

"Hanna! What are you doing here?"

"I was actually just stood up. My date kind of drove off, would you mind if I crashed this little party?"

"Of course not." Kara scooted over to offer the girl room. Paige tried to eye talk with Hanna but the other girl couldn't make eye contact due to the tears forming.

"So what are you guys talking about?" She choked out.

"Well I just discovered that Paige here is afraid of drowning, she loves Grey's Anatomy, and she would most likely name her first pet Pete."

"Wow you guys cover a lot of topics."

"Yep it's actually Paige's turn but I bet she wouldn't turn it over to you, ask me anything." She said cheerily.

"What's the dumbest thing you have ever done?" It was a sincere question. Hanna felt like a complete idiot at the moment and had no idea how she was going to fix it. On her way in, she had sent Emily a text apologizing but she knew that wasn't going to be read anytime soon.

"When I was 10 I was in this one foster home and I decided to pull a prank on the foster mom because I didn't like her cooking. I ended up being only allowed oatmeal for a month." She laughed.

"You were in the foster system?"

"Yeah, till I was 12. My dad knew that horses were a really good way to work with troubled kids so he started having horse shows for the group homes. Well him and my mom got attached to me an…me. They ended up adopting me when I was 14."

"That's amazing. It must have been hard going through different homes." Paige reached across the table and grabbed her hand. Hanna saw this action and began cursing herself more.

"It wasn't that bad. And once you find somebody you can rely on in the system, it feels like nothing can stop you. You become like siblings."

"The closest I had to a sibling was my friend's older sister, Melissa Hastings." Hanna added. This made Kara visibly uncomfortable.

"You don't know her but she was a drama queen. Little miss perfect always pointed out what we did wrong."

"Actually, I do know her. She used to come riding at the ranch. You are right though she can be a little crazy. Anytime any of the other riders used her stuff or horse she would have a temper tantrum. This one time she got in such a bad argument with one of the other riders that she got banned from the stables and any competitions held there."

"Do you remember who the other rider was?"

"nope, but they knew each other. Or at least their parents did because they got in an argument that seemed way too personal." This new information was extremely valuable but was still just a piece to the puzzle. Paige decided not to prod anymore and they ate their food among more questions. After the karaoke died down and the food was eaten, Paige drove Kara home with Hanna in the back seat. When they got to the stable she got out of the car and walked her to the door. They went through the awkward goodbye motions of fiddling with anything touchable. Finally, Paige leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Thanks for a nice evening." She walked back to her car and Hanna had already moved to the front seat. She had her hands covering her eyes and her legs were curled to her chest.

"What are you doing?"

"You're going to hate me." She whispered.

"Hanna?"

"The conversation you overheard between Em and me wasn't what it seemed. She was trying to tell me she was in love with you and wanted you. Paige she is choosing you." Paige looked to the door where Kara had just walked in, the perfect girl. Still, it didn't feel the same as it did with Emily. When she was with her, she felt comfortable and she melted every time the girl spoke but there wasn't something off. Still there was a stable, available, beautiful girl standing on the other side of that door. A girl that didn't deserve to be exploited for her knowledge. Paige slammed her head against the seat rest. Her phone vibrated in her lab and she partially opened one eye to look at it.

_We need to talk-Mona_

"you can't make this shit up." She mumbled to herself.

**TBC**


	14. Truce

A/N Happy Saturday! It's going to seem like all of these loose ends are just hanging around but don't worry. This is a very quick update because my house flooded and I am dealing with that. I am posting what I had done of the chapter.

Paige dropped Hanna off at her house and sat in her car fiddling with her phone. She needed to make the call but something held her back. Mona may or may not know anything about what she is doing. It could be about a million things. She knew that it wasn't smart to hold out on Mona. The girl never slept and on top of that she had eyes everywhere. She clicked call on her phone and waited for her to pick up.

"Hello Paige." She greeted in her sickly sweet way.

"Can you meet now?" It was almost 10 but Paige knew it wouldn't be a problem.

"Rosewood cemetery mausoleum , 10 minutes." This made Paige's blood run cold. She didn't even give Mona an answer. She hung up the phone and put her car in drive. She wanted to get there first so Mona couldn't surprise her. It only took a few minutes to pull outside of the cemetery gates. The car entrance was already locked so she had to get out and climb over the barrier. She briskly walked towards the mausoleum and entered the back door. It was nearly pitch black and the walls of the dead were only illuminated by low burning candles. She stood in the middle of a four way intersection not knowing where exactly she should be.

"Glad you could make it." Paige ripped her head in the direction of the voice. Mona was standing at the end of the north hallway a candle in her hand. Paige walked towards her, evaluating all of her exits as she moved.

"What do you want, Mona?" Paige's voice was much more confident than when she had asked the girl the same question a week before. Somehow in the past days, Paige had lost all since of fear or urgency. Every fear she may have felt was buried deep within her anger. Her only solace was that this couldn't go on much longer, not while she was giving her all to stop it.

"I think we need to come to a truce. I have information that you want and you have the ability to protect me." Paige was slightly taken aback.

"Why would anyone ever have to protect you?" Mona turned around and started pacing erratically.

"Things are falling into place Paige...and I… I had no idea what I was up against." She sounded completely defeated. She kept pacing, running her free hand through her hair.

"I just wanted to feel safe… but there isn't a safe place in heaven or hell while Allison is alive. She was supposed to stay gone. All of this would have gone away but she couldn't stand the idea of seeing her friends being able to move on without her. The queen always has to be in control." Paige timidly walked towards her and put a hand on her shoulder, turning her. She kept her hand there reassuringly.

"Mona you have to tell me what you are talking about. I can't protect any of you if I don't have all of the information."

"Allison is not who you think she is. I tried warning everyone. This whole army was just a way of making everyone see her for who she really is. But in a week she has been able to buy off every single one of them."

"Mona you aren't really innocent in all of this either."

"I know but at least I admit my crimes."

"Really…even the other night in the Church?" Paige let go of her shoulder and folded her arms.

"I thought it was you in that room. You're so damn noble. Take a step back and look at our lives, Paige. Every bad thing in this town can be connected to Allison. You should have let me do it."

"Do what, kill her? How many more people have to die for all of you to drop this high school bullshit? Look at the body count, Mona."

"You don't even know the half of it." Mona spat.

"Then tell me!" She shouted back. "I am tired of running around trying to save everyone from something that I am never going to see coming. This has to end Mona."

"I will tell you absolutely everything I know but you have to promise me you will protect me too." Paige mulled over the decision in her mind.

"On one condition."

"Name it."

"You help me put an end to this. Whatever I say, you do and we stop this cycle of death." She put out her hand and Mona took it.

"Deal…but I have a condition too." Paige nodded for her to continue.

"You help get Hanna to trust me again."

"I promise I will try." She proceeded to tell Paige every detail of the last years. From the moment she picked Allison up and washed her off to all of her recent plans to terrorize the girl. They sat on the mausoleum floor for an hour as Mona gave every last detail. Towards the end, Paige couldn't believe all of the stuff that Emily had never told her.

"When they were in New York, Shanna ended up shooting Mr. Fitz and then she came after the girls. They fought back and Shanna ended up hitting her head and dying." Paige couldn't even believe this. She knew her and Emily had broken up but it would have been nice to at least known the real cause of her ex-girlfriends death. They only dated for a few weeks but they were still friends and teammates. All of the information compiled still didn't explain why someone would do all of this.

"I get you started some of this but there is someone out there who is looking to finish your work and involve whoever they have to, to accomplish it."

"Allison has been pulling strings behind the curtain for years. I know she has, I just don't have any proof. I think someone found out about this and were not too happy she was still alive. I haven't figured out who that is yet. Which is why I need to know what you found out."

"How do you know I found out anything?" Paige questioned.

"Please, the second I thought it was you in the Church I decided to use that to my advantage. You were getting inside information so I made sure I had what I wanted getting out. I did plant information in Noel's room but it was real. I knew you would find it and follow the lead. I can't believe it didn't occur to me before. You are the perfect person to investigate all of this. No one would suspect you of anything because you are so benign and people feel like they can trust you." Paige gave her a crossed look.

"So you want to use my good reputation to manipulate people?"

"And your charm."

"How can I possibly trust you, Mona? You just admitted to basically being a terrorist and you want me to turn around and work with you. What gives?"

"In the beginning, this was all just a game to me. I had some issues that I have dealt with. I didn't realize there was a world outside of Rosewood. Then, I got accepted into all of these schools hundreds of miles away. It dawned on me that I didn't need this anymore. I could start over where people wouldn't know where I came from and they would like me for just me. I can't remember the last time I went somewhere in this town and people didn't look at me like I was still in a jump suit. I want to get away, Paige. But I can't do that unless all of this ends." Paige sympathized with the girl, she really did. She loved Stanford but a big reason she was going was because it was a chance to start over. The people out there would be normal and there biggest problems would be running out of laundry detergent. For the first time, Paige thought she was seeing the real Mona, past the facade she put on.

"Do you ever wonder what it would have been like if we didn't end up in this town?" Mona interrupted her thoughts. "I think about it every day." She continued. "I could have been something…something better than I am. Maybe I would have been a theatre dork and had all of these dorky friends who understood me. If I disappeared now, no one would have ever know anything real about me."

"What about Hanna?" Paige interjected. Mona got a small smile on her face, thinking about her friend.

"Even Hanna only knows the fake me. If you could do it all over again, would you?" Paige thought it over. There were things she hated about Rosewood and there were things she loved.

"I don't think I would. There are so many things I think I am missing out on but at the end of the day I would trade who I've become. If I was anywhere else, I don't think I would have become this person. Even with Allison's torture, she led me down a path where I learned to accept myself. I found the love of my life. I got a scholarship to one of the greatest schools in the country. And most importantly, I'm not ashamed at the person I see in the mirror in the morning. Even with all the crap, I wouldn't go back and change it." She said honestly.

"I completely underestimated you McCullers."

"Knowing you, you will only make that mistake once." Paige replied coyly. Paige filled her in on the information she had learned thus far, trusting her even though it didn't feel entirely right.

"I think what we have to do next is clear."

"Mona I just gave you information that points in eight different directions, what is clear about that?"

"We need to continue the game we have set in motion. No one knows we are together tonight. Let them all think I am still out to get Ali and that you are trying to protect her. We dig on our own so this other person doesn't see us coming."

"No." Paige said defiantly. "No one is doing anything on their own. That is how people get hurt. We work together. Even if the girls still think what they think, when it is just us, we need to stick together."

"You sound like you already have a plan."

"Well I was thinking, what is one of the only things Bethany, Allison, and Mrs. Dilaurentis have in common?"

"Crappy luck?" Mona responded snarkily.

"Radley."

**TBC**


	15. Hail Mary

A/N I'm back briefly last night was just crazy.

Paige barely rolled into bed when she had to get up again. Her parents were luckily out of town again so she could skip school unnoticed. They had made a plan to sneak into Radley during the day. There was less security and no one would suspect they were high schoolers. Paige looked outside and could see the storm clouds gathering. It was going to be a dark and dreary day which would hopefully add cover to their story. When Mona left, she went to make Paige a new badge. Paige would be able to go through like a new employee and she would let Mona in the back door.

She grabbed her phone off the counter and turned off the alarm. She kept on going over the plan in her head to make sure they didn't miss anything. Walking over to the mirror, she did another inspection of her body. Everything was healing nicely but her face still looked warn.

"You can still go back." She mumbled to herself, running her hand through her hair. Even though she said the words out loud, she knew they weren't true. She was into deep. This went beyond personal for her. Hanna's revelation last night meant that Emily was still there for her. It made her want to get in her car and go to the girl's house and lay it all out on the line. But there was a voice in the back of her head that said they would never be able to truly be together until all of this was over. She was going to have to put her desires on hold in order to finish a game that had gone way past over time. She looked at the clock on her wall and saw that it was almost 8. It reminded her that she might want to text Hanna.

At school, Hanna had just walked through the doors, making a beeline for Emily's locker. The other girl was surrounded by Spencer, Aria, and Allison. She approached slowly.

"Hey Em, can we talk?" It was more of a plea than a question. Emily ignored her and turned to put things in her locker. Hanna reached out and touched her shoulder to turn her around.

"Hanna as far as I am concerned, you have said enough." Emily pushed past her towards her class. The other girls followed, leaving Hanna alone. She was going to chase after but her phone buzzed in her pocket.

_Headed to the crazy house.-HP_

Hanna quickly figured out what Paige meant. She had texted her from the burner phone to cover her tracks. She wondered why Paige was going there alone and what prompted her to do it during school. She trusted Paige but now that the other girls had started to drift from her, it was nice to have a friend.

Paige closed the burner phone and threw it in her bag. As she did, her iPhone buzzed on the table. She expected it to be from Mona but it wasn't.

_Good morning! I wanted to say thank you for last night. I hope it isn't a one time thing ;)-Kara_

Paige was slightly torn at the message. She wanted to reply but at the same time she didn't want to lead the girl on. What she said to Emily the night before was true, Kara offered normalcy. She was beautiful, fun, and had very few strings attached. On the other hand, Paige had a connection to Emily that went beyond anything she could ever have with another person, even if she wanted to. The whole situation was unfair to everyone involved. She decided not to respond and grabbed her things to head to Mona's. When she got there, Mona had already had everything laid out. Paige looked at the nurses outfit and gagged slightly. It was definitely not her style.

"Do I seriously have to wear the hat and everything?" She picked up all of the pieces and starred at them reluctantly.

"and the shoes." She said holding out a pair of white grandmother sneakers. Paige began stripping and threw the knee length dress on. She pulled up the white socks and slipped her feet into the shoes. She didn't know how Mona knew her clothes and shoe size but she had learned a long time ago not to question anything.

"How do I look?" She held her arms out for an open assessment.

"Stop slouching your shoulders and we need to do something with your hair." Mona made her turn around and she put Paige's hair in a tight bun behind her head. She also grabbed the girl's shoulders and forced them back to where she was standing completely straight. As soon as she let go, Paige's shoulders naturally fell back into their lazy position. Mona readjusted them again but gave up.

"You give the lesbian slouch a new meaning."

"Hey, I'm a swimmer the slouch comes with the territory." Paige defended.

"Regardless of how you got your bad posture, it does not suit the outfit. Can you just act straight for a few hours?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your back, Paige. Can your back act straight?" She didn't let the girl respond and continued to get herself in costume. They packed all of their things and got into Paige's car. The drive was short and silent. The storm had begun to pick up and the sun wasn't providing much light. Paige parked in the employee parking lot and turned off the car.

"Go in the front door and turn left. They will have an ID scanner there. Just slide this ID through and it will let you in. There will be three doors on the right side. Go in the second door which will lead you down some stairs. At the bottom of the first flight, there is a door marked maintenance. This is the key." She placed the key in Paige's palm. "Walk all the way to the back of the room and there is an emergency exit door. I will be waiting there. I have already set the codes into my phone so the alarm won't sound. Once we are in, we will have to wait in the maintenance room for a while until the shift change. Once that happens, we can get into the file storage in the basement."

"Why can't we go as soon as we get in? Why are we here now and not later?" The night before she left it all to Mona to make the plans without questioning anything.

"The morning is when everyone is the busiest. They won't even notice you come in if you go now. Any time after, they will be suspicious." Paige was still nervous about trusting Mona completely. She could be setting her up for a trap.

"If anything goes wrong, the deal is off." Paige exited the car and walked the 20 yards to the front door. It had luckily stopped raining just long enough for her to get there. She opened the door and tried to look as confident as she could. She put her shoulders back as Mona had showed her and walked through the employee area. The security guard for visitors gave her a nod and she waved back, quickly averting her eyes. She slid the fake ID through the machine and the green light flashed on. She walked ten feet and saw the first door. She peeked inside and saw a group of patients painting. She walked another yard and a half and opened the second door, looking both ways before she entered. She quietly closed it behind her and ran down the flight of stairs. She located the maintenance door and fumbled putting the key in. She finally got in and locked it behind her. She moved towards the back of the room and saw Mona standing impatiently at the door. She opened the door and Mona pushed in.

"That took long enough." She huffed.

"I literally have been gone for five minutes. What did you want me to do, teleport?" Mona brushed off the comment and looked around for a place to settle for a while. She found a spot in one of the corners and spread put down her back pack. Out of the bag, she grabbed a blanket and her computer. Laying the blanket down, she patted a spot next to it, indicating for Paige to sit down. She happily obliged still exhausted from the last week.

"Why don't you get some sleep for a little bit. We literally have hours to kill and I'm not tired at all." Mona's voice was extremely genuine which threw Paige off slightly. She didn't want to give up the opportunity to get a little more rest and closed her eyes.

Hanna had been unsettled all day. She couldn't remember the last time she went hours without contact with any of the girls. She saw them whispering in between classes but no one would talk to her. Part of it was because of Emily and part was because they still didn't trust her. She knew it was because the alcohol but that was a slight slip that she hadn't made since the fire. After school, she decided she was going to confront everybody and let them yell at her or do what they wanted. She headed to the bathroom first because confrontational situations made her have to pee. She had just gotten into the stall when the door to the bathroom opened and she could hear very familiar voices. She quickly jumped on the toilet seat and tried to be as quiet as possible.

"Are you sure we should do this, Allison?" Hanna could hear Aria's voice.

"Detective Holbrook spent three hours last night insinuating that I knew more than I did. I convinced him that my kidnapper also killed Bethany Young."

"Your fake kidnapper." Spencer interrupted.

"They have believed it so far. We all know that A had something to do with this. Whether A is Mona or Shanna or whoever, the police won't believe that. If we give them an imaginary person to target then they won't go after us."

"But what happens when they put a real person to the imaginary?" Emily questioned.

"We will have to cross that bridge when we get there. For now, we have to go into Radley. They probably haven't gone through all of her files yet. We just need to look at them to make sure nothing else points to us."

"Why would anything point to us? The only real thing we had to go on was a few names and a horse farm. More importantly, we don't even know this girl. There shouldn't be anything in there." Aria was erratic, knowing any more investigation could point to what she did to Shanna.

"It wouldn't be the first time someone has planted evidence somewhere. I feel like we should try and get ahead of the game this time."

"What game, Ali? This is our lives. At one point, do we just give up?" Emily's voice was slightly choked by tears. "I'm serious. When was the last time you looked in the mirror and actually recognized yourself? I'm tired of playing…gameover." Emily went to leave but Allison grabbed her hand.

"Em, I promise this is the end. Shanna is dead, Mona's little army is finished, even HP hasn't sent us a message warning us of doom. If we stay strong these next few weeks, we will get our lives back." Emily wanted to say no but she couldn't, she never could.

"What's the plan?" Allison got a wicked grin on her mouth and turned so all the girls could see her.

"Aria you are already working there after school. When you are about to leave, spill some paint on yourself and ask to go to the laundry room to wash off. It is right next to where they do group therapy. There is a back door where the bigger things are sent off to be washed. Prop that door open and then we will come in later."

"How do you know all of this?" Spencer asked.

"You're not the only one who does their homework Spenc." She gave her a cold look. "Let's get moving."

Hanna could hear them making their way to the door which was a good thing because she was losing her footing on the seat.

"What about Hanna?" Aria spoke up.

"Until we know we can trust her, just lie and say you are going out to dinner with your boyfriends. And Em say you're coming over to my house, she's too dumb to question it anyways." Hanna wanted to jump off the seat and punch the other girl in the face. She was tired of people thinking she was stupid. In fact, she was the only one smart enough to figure everything out. She couldn't wait to see the look on their faces when she finds out who A is before them. The door shut and she waited a few more minutes before exiting as well. As she walked out, she realized that Paige was at Radley and if she wasn't out before the other girls go there it could all go up in flames. She pulled out her phone and called her but it went to voicemail. She left a message but honestly didn't know what to do.

Paige stirred awake and blinked her eyes, adjusting to the light. She rubbed her face trying to remember where she was. She felt her head and realized she still had the annoying hat on.

"Good morning princess." Mona was typing away at her computer, not even looking at Paige to acknowledge her consciousness.

"What time is it?"

"It's almost four-thirty." Paige nearly jumped out of her skin. She had been asleep for almost 6 hours.

"Why didn't you wake me up? Did I miss anything?"

"We can't do anything until five when they change shifts. You looked exhausted so I let you have a little nap."

"Thank you." Paige said genuinely. Before she could start a conversation they heard a noise coming from the door. They both jumped up. Mona pushed her stuff under the nearest table and headed for the door.

"If we both walk out, we can't get back in." Paige whispered. Mona was frantically looking for an exit strategy. The room wasn't big enough to hide and whoever was at the door would surely catch them. Luckily, they seemed to be having trouble with their key. Mona starred frantically at Paige.

"What do we do?" Paige saw a slight glint in Mona's eye, a similar glint that Hanna had nights before.

"Don't you dare kiss me. I swear to God…" With that, she had an idea. She quickly dragged Mona towards the center of the room and put her on her knees. She pulled both of their hats off and threw them to the side.

"What are you…" Before she could finish, the door open and Paige fell to her knees as well. She folded her hands and bowed her head. The man at the door was rather alarmed to see the basement occupied.

"Excuse me, but who allowed you in here." Paige made an exaggerated sign of the cross.

"Amen." The man was slightly caught off guard by the prayer.

"I am so sorry…I didn't realize." Paige stood up, leaving Mona kneeling, facing away from the man. She walked towards him and held out a hand.

"It's quite alright." She said in a sickly sweet voice. "I am Sister Mary…Catherine. I'm a nun from the Palatine convent in Pittsburg. My associate and I are visiting many of the local hospitals to offer prayer and assistance." The man seemed to believe her.

"My apologizes sister…but why are you down here?" He gave Paige a once over, as she was dressed in the traditional hospital clothes.

"This is the third place we have been in a matter of days and we haven't even had time to wash our habits. This facility was so kind to let us wear their but we have been so busy with patients that we have neglected our own time with the Lord. The door was unlocked so we thought this would be a safe place to pray. We can leave if we are going to inconvenience you." She put on a fake, million watt smile.

"No ma'am. I just had to get a wrench." He walked over to the bench where Mona's stuff was laying under. Both girls held their breath, hoping his tool wasn't under the table. He found what he was looking for and walked away. As he was heading out of the room, Paige was able to drop her arms from her holy position. The man turned around though and she quickly regained her saintly composure.

"You know my wife is real sick right now. Would you mind saying a quick prayer with me?" Paige knew she couldn't say no. She walked over to him and made the sign of the cross, reaching out for his hands. He took off his hat and held her hands as best he could.

"Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blest are you among women and blest is the…" Paige froze and momentarily forgot the words. She played it off as a cough. "Blest is the fruit of your womb. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and the hour of our death. Amen." She squeezed his hands and made the sign of the cross again.

"I can just feel the hand of God on her right now. Thank you so much and you Ladies get back to the Lord's work." He smiled and walked out of the door, locking it behind him. Paige threw her head back and breathed a sigh of relief.

"What the hell was that, Sister Mary Catherine?" Mona sat down on the floor eyeing Paige.

"What?" Paige shrugged her shoulders.

"You just came up with a level five lie in about 15 seconds." Paige laughed at this.

"I keep on underestimating you McCullers."

"Don't be too impressed. Most lies are based in truth, right?" Mona nodded her head confused.

"My dad's the deacon at the Catholic Church so I grew up basically wanting to be a nun…and Catherine is my middle name. I almost blew it on the Hail Mary though. I get stage freight when praying a loud"

"You're Catholic?"

"Yeah."

"But you're gay."

"and the sky is blue." Paige quipped.

"Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I can't be Catholic. I actually enjoy being both. Tolerance is a two way street. The Church doesn't agree with everything I do and I don't agree with everything they do. That doesn't mean I don't believe in God or what they teach about him." Mona was completely dumbfounded.

"You are seriously the most complex person I have ever met and I see this face in the mirror every morning… In another life, we would have been great friends." Paige reached out her hand to help the girl up.

"There is still plenty of this life, Mona." Paige walked over to the blanket and picked up her phone.

"Shit." She mumbled as she saw the multiple missed calls from Hanna. She didn't even read any of the messages or voicemails and immediately called her back. Surprisingly, Hanna picked up on the first ring.

"Why the hell haven't you been picking up the phone?" She screamed.

"I was asleep, Han. We…I'm in Radley right now waiting for the shift change."

"Well you better get what you came for quick. The girls are on their way over there to snoop through Bethany's files. They are planning to get in when Aria is done volunteering which could be any minute now." Paige signaled Mona to come over and put the phone on speaker.

"The girls are coming to Radley?" She repeated for Mona to hear.

"Paige you are smarter than this. Get out as soon as you can because Allison sounded like she was on a vendertta."

"Vendetta." Mona corrected. She quickly put her hand over her mouth. Paige glared at her, shaking her head.

"Who was that?" Hanna questioned. "Because if it is who I think it sounded like it is, you have a lot of explaining to do."

"Gotta go." Paige quickly hung up the phone. "Really?" She threw her phone into Mona's bag.

"We don't have a lot of time." She headed to the maintenance door in preparation for the five o clock shift change.

"Don't forget your hat." Mona held out the white piece of dome like fabric.

**TBC**


	16. I Love You

A/N Happy labor day!

Paige and Mona walked out of the maintenance room and made their way up the short flight of stairs to the main door. Paige peered her head through and could see several people moving about.

"Maybe you should do this, I have no idea what I'm looking for." They switched places and Mona silently surveyed the hallway. Without warning, she opened the door and dragged Paige through it. She continued to hold her wrist, walking down the north hallway. They were about to make the turn down the next hallway when Paige heard a familiar voice. She pulled Mona back, pinning them both against the wall.

"I'm so sorry. I guess I wasn't paying attention and spilt paint all over my shirt. Is there anywhere I can clean this up?" Aria was standing about ten feet away.

"Here take my key, the laundry room is just down that hallway on the right." Paige turned around and saw the room that the woman was referring to. She heard the clicking of Aria's heels and quickly moved towards another door. She jiggled the handle and it was luckily unlocked. They moved into the room just in time and closed it behind them.

"That was close." Paige breathed out. She looked out the small window and saw Aria unlocking and going in the laundry room.

"Okay let's go I don't know how long we have." They moved out of the room again and Paige followed Mona's lead. Because of the interruption, they missed the shift change and now there was a new nurse sitting at the desk. They needed it to be empty so they could be buzzed through. They kept walking in that direction as Mona tried to think of a new plan in her head. Paige was one step ahead of her. She saw the maintenance man from before and waved him down. He was standing beyond the gate, apparently fixing an electrical issue.

"What are you doing?" Mona whispered.

"Trust me." Paige mumbled as she pushed past Mona to stand in front of her. The man waved to the desk clerk and she buzzed open the door for him. Paige waited patiently and as the door buzzed up she pushed through rather than having him come to the other side. Mona was barely able to slip in with her but they made it without suspicion.

"Is there something you need sister?" He questioned.

"No, this will be our last day here and I just wanted to tell you that we would be praying for you, even when we are gone." Mona had her head bent nodding along. The man put his hand to his heart, uttered a thank you and returned to his work. As soon as he was turned around, Mona pushed forward, leading to the file room. They went down a few hallways and ended up in the corner of the hospital. At the end of the last hallway, Mona turned in front of an unmarked door. Outside, the storm from earlier had picked up and lightening was making an appearance in the sky. It made the poorly lit hallway feel scarier than it already was. Mona tried twisting the door knob but it was locked.

"Where are we going to get a key? I doubt this one will work for every door." Mona gave a slight laugh and removed another key from her bra.

"Never fear McCullers, there's always a plan B." She slid the key in and the door clicked open. The room was set up like a stereotypical file room you would see in a cop show. There was a wooden table with a single desk lamp, rows of metal filing cabinets, and on the walls boxes of records with the names marked in sharpie on the front.

"What should we look for?" Paige asked.

"There should be a box for her and a file folder. We will need both. Also, look to see if they have anything on Mrs. Dilaurentis." Paige went down the isles and looked for the large box with Young on it while Mona went through the cabinets. She was quickly successful and pulled the box off the shelf. Bringing it over to the table, she poured out the contents. She started to comb through the different belongings looking for anything relevant. It looked as if when she disappeared they completely packed up her room half hazardly into the box. There were a few CDs and magazines, a notebook, and several articles of clothing. Also in the box was a smaller container. Paige poured this out and found a dozen recorded tapes. She was looking at the titles on them when Mona came back with her files.

"Anything interesting?" She asked.

"Besides her mix tapes and Fall Out Boy t-shirt, nothing much. These tapes look to be recordings from her therapy sessions. I don't have anything to play them on though." On cue, Mona pulled out an audio player with a tape slot. Paige gave her an incredulous look but accepted the out dated machine.

"We don't have much time if Hanna is right about Allison coming. She probably has them thinking this is about Bethany but I would bet there is something in here about her." Paige popped in the first tape and pressed play. As the recording started, they continued to look through the other artifacts. Mona was engrossed in her personal file while Paige was trying to learn something from her scribbled in notebook. They stopped what they were doing when they heard the girl's voice for the first time.

"This is Bethany Young speaking. Dr. Wilkins thought it would be a good idea to record some of my thoughts and feelings so I could listen to them in the future and maybe learn more about myself…I don't know this all seems weird to me. I want to go home but he says if I don't get help, I'll have another episode. He can say all he wants but until he has seen what I have seen, I don't think he will be able to help. One of the things he wants me to open up about is my relationship with my sister. He thinks that we are too dependent on each other. He won't let me see her but luckily Mrs. D found a way around that. She has been really great to me. She probably likes me so much because her daughter is such a pain in the neck…" She laughed to herself. "She came by a few weeks ago because her school got out early and she did the strangest thing I have ever seen. Her mom wouldn't let her go out with her friends to this college party so she just held her breath. I thought she was going to pass out. She crossed her arms and wouldn't breathe until her mother said yes. What kind of kid does that? If I had a mom like Mrs. D, I would do everything she said. Maybe that's why I'm in here, because I never had a mom. Still, I can't blame my life on who did or didn't raise me, that would be crazy. Mrs. D's kid turned out awful and she has a great mom. . I may be in a mental hospital but at least I have manners. I guess I turned out fine with nobody." She laughed again. "Well I can't say I had nobody. My sister was always looking out for me. I wonder if she misses me as much as I miss her? Hopefully Mrs. D can get us back together because the woods are missing their queens." Paige slammed her hand down on the machine, stopping the track.

"What was that for?" Mona questioned. Paige didn't know what to say. She wasn't even sure if her hunch was right.

"It was just creeping me out. The girl talking probably never thought that she wasn't going to be able to listen to those recordings again. She probably had her whole life planned out and it was just swept right from under her. Why did the police never come here and try to figure out why she went missing? Where's the justice?"

"That's why we are here. We are going to find out who killed her and hopefully get rid of A all at the same time." Paige wasn't completely reassured.

"And to answer your second question, her case wasn't investigated because she was a foster kid." Paige's stomach dropped. It was the final nail in the coffin. Mona didn't notice her reaction and continued telling about what she found. "Her parents died in a car accident when she was three and she was in the foster system until she died. Her last foster parent was…"

"George Davis." Paige finished. Mona looked up at her confused.

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Because I went on a date with her sister last night." Mona's face begged her to continue.

"I went to this farm ranch on Sunday because of the transcript you left in Noel's room. Melissa had talked about Mrs. D taking Bethany there on the weekends. While I was there, I met the owner's daughter, Kara. She showed us around and when we went to leave I noticed that her helmet had Bethany's name on it. I invited her to dinner last night to see what she knew. I ended up finding out she was in the foster system as well. She talked about how the people you are housed with become like your family. It didn't all click until Bethany was talking about being queens of the woods. Kara said the exact same thing on Sunday." Mona was processing all of the information.

"We need to listen to the rest of those tapes." Paige agreed. She went to hit play again but Mona stopped her.

"We don't have time. Collect the tapes and her notebook and we need to get out of here." Paige packed the unnecessary things back in the box and ran it back over to the shelf. When she got back, Mona had already packed everything else in her back pack. It was too late though, the door handle was starting to wiggle. They had locked it back but it was just a matter of time before they unlocked it. The girls looked at each other unsure of what to do. Mona threw the bag on her back and turned off the light to where it was nearly pitch black. The only light came through the window when lightening flashed.

"When they open the door, we have to run past them. If they chase after us, split up and meet back in the maintenance room." On the other side of the door, Allison was busying herself picking the lock.

"I don't know my way around here." She heard the click of the lock. There wasn't time for Mona to give her directions. As soon as the door opened, they pushed past the girls on the other side. It didn't faze them for long though. Spencer and Emily began racing after the two white figures, leaving Allison behind.

"I'm going left." Emily shouted as she saw one figure veer. Spencer continued on straight trying to track down the other ghost. The white nurse's shoes were not great for running but Paige could tell she had a lead. The hallways were all dark still because no one bothered to turn on the lights during the storm. She could hear the banging of feet close behind her and she really didn't know where to go. If she went into the maintenance room, she could get out but that would mean leaving Mona behind with all of the evidence. She decided to go the opposite way. She made her way back to the stairwell door and started climbing two by two. She made it to the second flight before she heard the door open below her. Her breathing became labored as she reached the fourth flight. She didn't realize how tall the building actually was. The person behind her was gaining speed and she was running out of stairs to climb. She finally reached the roof landing and prayed the door was open. She lowered her shoulder and pushed into the lever on the door. It busted open and she was instantly drenched in rain. She looked around for some place to hide and ran behind an air vent. There wasn't much room on the roof, with only a few feet of space between the edge and the door. Paige tried to get control of her breathing, bracing herself with her back to the wall. Moments later, the other girl ran onto the roof.

"I know you're out there!" Emily screamed. Her clothes were drenched as well but it didn't bother her. She was too focused on the task at hand. For the first time, she had cornered A with no visible way to escape. Paige's heart fell at the sound of Emily's voice. _Why couldn't it have been Spencer_, she thought to herself. She hoped that Emily would give up and go back inside but she knew how much resilience the girl had, it was one of the many things she loved about her. Emily slowly walked around the roof, trying to spy the bright white figure. The rain was clouding her vision and the dark clouds over the whole area blocked out any visible light. Paige slowly peeked around the vent and saw Emily move away from the door. If she could get her on the other side, she could make a break for it and get back down stairs. She slid one of her shoes off and threw it in the opposite direction of the door. Emily instantly reacted moving towards the clunk of the shoe. Paige had terrible accuracy and landed the shoe a few inches from the edge. She slowly moved in the direction of the door as Emily moved towards the shoe. She was almost there when a flash of lightening ripped through the air. She jumped back away from the door, now only a few feet from the other girl. Emily heard the commotion and turned towards her, only able to see the back of her body.

"Don't move." She shouted. Paige stood in her place.

"Now, turn around." Paige slowly began to turn around at her insistence as another crash of thunder rang out. This caught Emily off guard and she stumbled backwards. She lost her footing on a protruding pipe and began falling over the edge. Paige had enough awareness to lean forward and catch the girl's hand. She barely got a grip and the force pulled her forward crashing her hip into the low wall. Emily began screaming as she dangled over the wall, only connected to Paige's slipping hand.

"Please don't let go." She begged. Paige reached her other hand out and pulled at the girl's elbow.

"I've got ya." Emily's eyes bolted up instantly recognizing who the voice belonged to. Her recognition was soon replace by fear again as she could feel herself slipping farther down. She glanced down once and nearly feinted seeing the distance she would be falling. Paige was trying to leverage herself enough to pull Emily up but the water was making it impossible to get a good grip. With a final burst of strength, she dug her feet into the wall and pulled Emily up. The force caused her to fall backwards, with Emily landing on top of her. They were both soaking wet and out of breath. Emily sat up, straddling Paige and out of breath.

"Em." Paige started but was interrupted by a fist connecting to her jaw. Paige rolled to the right, knocking Emily off of her.

"Can you let me explain please?" Paige yelled, clenching her jaw.

"What in the world could you say to make this better? Have you been A this whole time? Were you with me as part of this game?" She got up and started to walk towards the door.

"No."

"No to what Paige?" Emily spat out behind her.

"To all of that…I'm not A." Paige lifted herself up, trying to catch up.

"Then what the hell are we doing here?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you before you punched me in the face."

"I'm tired of everyone lying to me. I'm done with this." She opened the door to leave but Paige reached behind her slamming it shut. She flipped Emily around, pinning her to the door.

"I'm HP!" She shouted. Any hope Paige had of leaving Emily out of it was now gone. She should have listened to Hanna and got out of there sooner. With that said, Emily's reaction was priceless to her. The girl went through multiple stages of confusion and Paige could see it all playing on her face, even in the dark.

"But…you can't…why?" Emily was struggling to form complete thoughts or sentences. Paige was just glad she had her full attention.

"Can I explain it all to you now?" Emily nodded.

"When I left your house the other night, I knew you weren't going to listen to me about Allison. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I figured out what Mona was doing and I did everything I could to diffuse it. Then Hanna figured out it was me and I had to bring her into it. When we were at Noel's party, Mona left me something. It has led me on this wild goose chase that has to do with Bethany Young, Allison, and pretty much every bad thing that has ever happened here. That girl last night, Kara, was just another lead. Em I'm so close to ending this so we can go back to our lives."

"You're telling me all of this has been you?" Paige nodded.

"Saving Allison from the church, rescuing Hanna from the fire, getting Spencer and I out of the horse stalls, that was all you?" She nodded again. Emily did the only thing she could think of and embraced the other girl in a strong hug. She started crying into her shoulder, her tears mixing in with the rain water. She pulled away and touched the place where she had just struck Paige.

"I am so sorry." She kissed her jaw gently. She pulled away and certain events started to piece themselves back together in her mind.

"The mark on your arm isn't from biking is it?" She questioned, grazing her finger down the long gash.

"It was a shard of glass from saving Ali."

"And the bruise on your shoulder?" She peeled back the soaking wet layer of clothing, revealing a still very purple bruise.

"That would be a combination of throwing Hanna and you over my shoulder." Emily's eyes traveled down more and saw the bruises on her legs and calves.

"And these?"

"Bucking horse." Emily shook her head in disbelief.

"You went through all of this for me?"

"For us." She stated. Emily turned her head away, trying to hold back the tears that had gone back and forth from flowing.

"I'm not worth this." She whispered, trying to pull away. Paige wouldn't let her though.

"Don't look away." She held her chin and brought it back to her, their faces inches apart.

"I will never regret loving you or doing anything because I love you."

"But what about what you said last night…you want normal."

"Normal is good. But I like what we have it's…"

"Ludicrous?" She interrupted.

"I was going for unpredictable."

"I'm not sure I like unpredictable anymore." Emily mumbled.

"Really?" Before she could answer, Paige brought their faces together into a searing kiss. She began to pull away but Emily wouldn't have it. She grabbed Paige's neck with both hands and pulled her in closer. They were both in need of oxygen but being a part wasn't an option. Finally, Paige pulled back, resting her head on Emily's.

"I have to go." She whispered. Emily held on her to her neck, hoping to dissuade her.

"I need you to promise me something though."

"Anything."

"You can't tell the other girls about any of this, especially Allison…and you can't ask me why."

"But I want to help." She complained.

"You can by making sure that nobody on your end interferes." She moved the wet hair away from Emily's face and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"Please trust me." The words were a call back to a few weeks ago when Emily thought she would never trust Paige again. After she found out about the letter, she thought it was the end of their relationship but after all of the events of the past week she could finally see how irrelevant that one action really was.

"I do." Paige turned them around so she could open the door.

"Wait…" Emily put her hand on the door. Paige waited there, waiting for Emily to say something.

"I love you." Paige leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek. Emily closed her eyes never wanting to be without that contact again. While she was still inches from her ear, Paige whispered back "I love you too."

**TBC**


	17. Oxygen

A/N I know it's been three weeks but there is no rest for the wicked when it comes to school

Paige had made her way out the maintenance room door and found Mona waiting in her car. She tried to do an inconspicuous walk run to the car but ended up looking out of place. She finally got there, soaked and out of breath.

"What happened to you…and your face?" Mona questioned, completely dry.

"I got a little hung up but we're good now."

"Hung up?" Paige gave her a stern look, and Mona dropped the subject.

"I guess we are heading back to my place to listen to these?" Mona held up the bag of tapes. Paige started the car and pulled out of the parking lot towards her house.

"I love a good sleep over."

Emily had struggled to find her way back to the other girls and nearly gave up. Her clothes were soaked, she nearly died, and now her ex-girlfriend was running around like a caped crusader because her ex-ex-girlfriend was a psycho path. It was a good thing she got lost because she had to mentally prepare herself for facing Allison. She knew the girl always had an agenda but it was inconceivable that she was the cause of all of their problems the past years. For once though, Emily was going to believe Paige. She found the door to the file room and took in a deep breath before opening it. She kept her head low as she entered but her current condition caused some slight concern.

"What the hell happened to you?" Spencer questioned.

"I was running after my person and they trapped me on the roof." It wasn't a complete lie.

"Well I didn't have much luck either and it doesn't look like there is anything here that connects us to Bethany Young." Emily made her way over to the table and silently picked up and replaced items they retrieved from the table. There wasn't much there besides an old shirt and a few pens.

"Did we find out anything?" Emily had a feeling that there was something missing here that Paige might have got off with. The thought of the other girl made her pulse quicken just a little more.

"She's a foster kid who was sent here because she couldn't play nice and I'm pretty sure she had an obsession with my mother." Emily put on a straight face. She now knew that anything that came out of Allison's mouth couldn't be taken for face value.

"Why do you think she was obsessed with your mother?" Spencer asked.

"There are a bunch of request forms in her by Bethany to see my mother. Sometimes it was three or four times a week." She set the file down and leaned against the table.

"This girl was a foster kid so let's say she got attached to my mom because she never had one of her own. The night she went missing she probably went to find my mom but instead found me. Maybe she was so mad that I got to have her so she tried to get rid of me."

"There are a lot of holes in that story, Ali." Emily commented.

"Jeez Em, I was just trying to fit this new information in. For right now, there is nothing in here that points to us so we need to get out before we get caught." Allison closed the folder and put it back in the drawer. They all headed towards the door but Spencer had another thought and turned towards Ali.

"Does it say who her fosters parents were? Maybe that's the missing piece."

"Nope. It just said in the foster system." Spencer didn't seem satisfied but accepted Allison's lie.

Paige turned down Mona's street and parked a safe distance away. Mona went to get out of the car but Paige stopped her with her hand.

"Wait a second." The rain was still falling and the walk to Mona's house wasn't going to exactly be quick.

"Can we decompress for a minute."

"I'd rather do that inside where at least you can get some dry clothes on and I know we are safe."

"Is this how you've lived your life? Mona when was the last time you stopped moving? I'm serious. When was that last time you went a whole day without looking behind your back?" She didn't get a response.

"When…"

"I don't know!" Mona interrupted. Her loud outburst was followed by a whisper of the same statement.

"That why we need to go inside. There isn't time to decompress. Every minute we wait to find out who is behind this is another minute that we aren't living our lives."

"You aren't completely innocent in all of this." Paige countered.

"I was a kid then who didn't realize there was life outside of Rosewood. I understand that I did something wrong and I will pay for that but this game is over." She got out of the car and protected her bag with her shirt. She made her way across the street, her figure only illuminated by the street lights. Paige let her go but decided to hang back. She leaned back her seat just enough to where she could rest her head. Closing her eyes, she laid her forearm over her head and started to calmly breathe. Paige understood where Mona was coming from. The faster they listened to those tapes, the faster everyone gets to move on from this nightmare. That was the scariest part for her. She didn't know how to exist outside of the chaos. More importantly, she didn't know if her relationship could exist. So much of what held her and Emily together was brought on by the craziness that surrounded them.

Paige tried to push the future from her mind. She undid the tie in her hair and ran her fingers through the soaking locks. She took a moment for herself because the second she got out of the car reality was going to come crashing back down. The moment ended and she made her way out of the car and towards Mona's house. The door was still unlocked so she was able to go in unnoticed. When she got to Mona's room, she could already hear the tapes playing. The voice from beyond the grave echoed in the small confines of the room. Paige slipped in and laid her stuff on a nearby chair. She was about to ask for a change of clothes but she saw that Mona had already left it out for her. After she got changed, she sat down next to the girl and prepared to listen.

"What did I miss?" She leaned back on the bed frame, trying to make herself comfortable.

"It was right where we left off. She is talking about Allison being a brat and wanting to see her sister." Mona went to hit the play button again but Paige stopped her.

"What are we expecting here? Honestly, say we find out who killed her, what are we going to do with that information? Do we bring it to the cops and admit that we broke into a federal institution? What is the plan with all of this because I am can tell you now I am not going to jail because of Allison Dilaurentis."

"I was thinking about the same thing...there are really only two ways of going about this. If we find conclusive evidence we will return this stuff, plant a lead with the cops, and then hope it gets solved from there." Paige gave her a crossed look.

"Let's base our decisions on the premise that the Rosewood police department is as incompetent as a bunch of five year olds."

"Fair point. The second option is confronting whoever we find and blackmailing them into turning themselves in for a lesser sentence." To Paige, neither option was appealing. She knew that justice was never going to be fully served. Mona could sense that the other girl was uneasy.

"Let's go one step at a time. We will cross that bridge when we get there." Paige unconsciously yawned even though she was meaning to nod.

"Why don't you go home? I promise I will call you with information the second I have any. You are going to be no use to me if you aren't rested." Paige wanted to fight but she had nothing left. Compared to the other people on Paige's list of "friends", Mona was nearing the top for most trustworthy. She grabbed her bag without arguing and made her way towards the door.

"I want an update first thing in the morning." Mona nodded vigorously. Paige started walking out the door and realized she was still wearing the borrowed clothes. She looked at the damp pile of clothes in the corner of the room and cringed at the thought of putting that back on. She did a once over on her outfit and decided the boy shorts and t-shirt would have to do.

"And I will return these to you…eventually." She didn't wait for a response and headed to her car. The drive home was a daze and she barely remembered falling into her bed. She grabbed her phone and put it on the charger. She clicked through everything recent and went back over the forgotten text from Kara. Now that she knew the girl lied to her, she was a little more timid in answering. She was also conflicted because Kara was a great source of information but it was at the cost of leading her on. Paige quickly weighed the options in her head, realizing that leading her on was worth it if it got to the bottom of the case. She quickly typed out a message and watched as the bar loaded.

_Sorry I didn't respond earlier…I've been home sick all day :( I had a good time too. It was nice to get away from the world for a little bit. –P_

She rolled over on to her pillow, thinking she could go to sleep but her phone buzzed instantly.

_I wish I would have known you were sick, I could have made soup or something(not like I know where you live but I would have tried). I would ask to hang out again soon but with Thanksgiving Thursday you'll probably have all kinds of family stuff. Hopefully you won't forget me over the long weekend ;)-K_

Paige felt like a horrible person. She chose not to respond instantly. Maybe the other girl will think she fell asleep. It ended up being the truth because in the next moments she did fall asleep. She awoke the next morning to two missed calls from Mona. She quickly dialed the number back, still mostly asleep.

"Hello?" She said groggily.

"Good morning, princess. I am just giving you your 6am update as requested. I got through three sessions and it is mostly the same information from the first. The dates are starting to get closer to her disappearance but I want a complete picture so I'm going start to finish."

"You called me at 6 am to report that you have nothing to report." Paige could imagine Mona's smug smile on the other end. The girl was probably already dressed, hair done, and make up done.

"That is correct. She were quite adamant about having a report first thing in the morning." Paige hung up the phone without responding. She was up enough to where going back to sleep would be counterproductive. She decided to get a more normal start on her day and got up to get her swim stuff together. Within thirty minutes, she was in the locker room and headed for laps. She went hard for 45 minutes, just enough time to get reasonably ready for school. It was only a half day because of Thanksgiving so it wasn't like any of the teachers were going to do anything. She pulled out her phone to check the time and she had a number of missed calls and texts from Mona. She went to respond but the locker room door opened. She responded like she wasn't supposed to be there and quickly through her phone into the locker. When she turned around, her heart picked up just enough to make her catch her breath.

"You are extremely predictable, you know?" The girl gave a halfhearted smile.

"You shouldn't be here, Em. I told you what has to happen." Emily walked closer ignoring Paige's directive.

"I don't want to mess this up again. I know why you are pushing me away but what happens if this goes on for another month or God help us longer. I can't spend weeks watching you from a distance knowing that I can never kiss you or hold your hand…or even talk to you."

"Emily we aren't back together. There are a lot of things we need to figure out before we can do this."

"Why can't we go back to where we were?" She countered.

"I don't want to be where we were. If we go back there then we are going to break up when I go to Stanford anyways. I wasn't lying when I said I want us to start over. It just isn't this moment." Paige could see the disappointment on Emily's face.

"But you still love me…at least a little bit." Paige couldn't hide her smile.

"I love you a lot….and that is exactly why I need you to do what I asked. Pretend I did something God awful that made you hate me."

"You mean like betray my trust by sending a letter to the cops?" She tried to hold a straight face but it didn't last long.

"Too soon." Paige deadpanned.

"So you're serious. We are just going to go on with our lives and pretend that we hate each other." Paige nodded.

"What happens when I can't resist anymore?"

"Well I heard you met this really cute girl named Piper at Noel's party. I bet she would love to sneak around with you."

"Sneak around?" Emily raised an eyebrow.

"You know in an empty classroom, behind the stadium…in the locker room after hours." Paige inched closer to her grabbing onto her jacket.

"Piper seems like a locker room kind of girl." She leaned in closer inches from Paige's face.

"She is one lucky girl." Paige closed the distance and pulled Emily towards her using the flaps on her jacket. Emily had a stack of books in her hand so Paige was in control. She began to pull away but Emily dropped everything and pulled her closer, hands gripping her hair. The sudden movement caused them both to step backwards. Emily used this to her advantage and pushed Paige up against the lockers themselves. This elicited a slight moan from Paige but it didn't deter her competitive nature. She used her grip on Emily's jacket to flip them around, Emily now against the locker. Oxygen was the ultimate winner though and they broke to breathe. Their foreheads rested on each other and their chests rose and fell together.

"This doesn't change anything." Paige whispered.

"I know."

"I'm doing this for you."

"I know." Emily caught her breath and began to pick up all of her things. She knew she needed to leave but there was an energy that was holding her in her place. It was like they were in their own bubble and the second she walked out the door, it would all go away. Paige could since her timidity.

"Same time tomorrow?"

"I'd like that." Emily walked out the door leaving Paige alone again. She would have stayed starring at the door Emily just left if it wasn't for the incessant ringing of her phone. She dug it out of her locker and saw the most recent message from Mona.

_I know who killed Bethany Young.-M_

**TBC**


	18. Pray

A/N Here we go again.

Paige immediately hit the call button on Mona's contact and waited for an answer. It was still thirty minutes till school started but with information that important she figured that the girl would pick up the phone. The call went to voicemail and she immediately hung up and tried again. After the third time, Paige went back through the messages that Mona had sent her. None of them told her where Mona was or exactly what she had found. She didn't know why but she felt that something was wrong. She threw on her clothes haphazardly and ran to her car. As she ran, she continued to call but there was still no answer. By her calculations, she could make it to Mona's house in less than seven minutes. She threw her things into the car and pulled out of the parking lot as fast as she could. By the fifteenth call, Paige gave up trying to reach the girl by phone. She turned on to Mona's street and pulled her call into the drive way. Without shutting it off, she bounded towards the house. She tried the door but it was locked. The light from the rising sun obscured her vision of the inside of the house. She put her hand to the window and tried peering in. As she did, she saw a figure in black trekking away from the stairs. She banged on the door as loud as she could, hoping to warn Mona. The figure did not turn around but proceeded to race away.

Paige looked for anything substantial to break down the door. She took a step back and tried to ram her shoulder into the frame but it was bolted and didn't give. She looked around her and saw a flower pot on the ground. She picked it up and hurled it through the front window. Glass shattered everywhere. She put her hood up as she broke through the rest of the glass and rolled on the couch. As soon as she was on her feet, she raced in the direction she saw the figure leaving. She was unfamiliar with Mona's home beyond her bedroom and ran in the general direction of the back. When she got to the kitchen, the back door was already hanging open. She took a step out but didn't see anyone. Her concern shifted to Mona. She ran up the stairs two and a time and busted through her bedroom door. At the first glance of the room, she nearly threw up. There was blood splattered all over the mirror and even more on the floor. She went in all directions of the room but couldn't find Mona. She saw fresh blood dripping on the floor and she turned quickly to see its origin but she didn't realize it was coming from herself. She ignored it and tried to process the situation. The rush of adrenaline was helping her to think but the sight of the scene was making her want to hide away. She started to get lost in her thoughts when she heard a slight moan. She backtracked out of the room and down the hall way. She didn't know how she missed it before but there was a clear line of dragged blood down the left side of where Mona's room was. Paige followed the trail and found the girl on her back, seemingly grasping for the nearby phone. Paige collapse beside her and tried to assess the damage.

"Hey…you're going to be okay." She put her hand behind her neck and tried to straighten it so her face was straight to the ceiling. Mona's eyes were completely dilated and Paige could see how innocent this girl really was. Paige reached over her body and grabbed the phone, Mona had dragged herself to get. She quickly dialed 911 and put it on speaker phone.

"9-1-1 what is your emergency?"

"My name is Paige McCullers and I am at 253 Poplar Street. I have a girl here who needs an ambulance immediately." Paige was still trying to see exactly where all the blood was coming from.

"Ma'am can you tell me what happened?"

"I don't know what happened. When I got here, she was already like this."

"Ma'am you are going to have to be more specific. Can you describe the victim for me?"

"She's an eighteen year old female. I think she has blunt force trauma to her head and her abdomen." Mona was starring directly into her eyes, but she couldn't say anything.

"The EMS will be there in less than five minutes. Is she conscious?"

"Yes but she doesn't look good. What do I do?" Paige yelled at the phone, still holding Mona's head in her hand.

"Paige you are doing everything you can. What I need you to do now is stay on the line and keep her…" Before the rest of the words came out, the power to the house went out. Luckily, there was enough light coming in through the window. Paige tried the phone again but it didn't work. She left in her phone in the car and had no way of getting it without leaving Mona. The girl started to choke a little bit and Paige sat behind her, pulling the girl into her lap. She carefully held the girl's neck, and turned it slightly to where she was no longer choking.

"You heard her, they're almost here. You just have to hold on a little longer." Paige held her a little tighter. Mona began to speak but more blood just came out.

"Shhh…don't speak. You can tell me about it later, okay?" The girl continued to persist. She was finally able to get enough control to utter a few words.

"Pray with me." A tear streaked down her face and was matched by the multitude of tears now pouring from Paige's eyes. Mona was no longer looking at Paige but at a crucifix hanging across the hallway. Paige reached down and grabbed one of Mona's hands and clasped it.

"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…" Her voice caught in her throat as more tears threatened to come out.

"Amen." Mona gurgled out, still barely audible.

"Eternal Father, I offer you this body, blood, soul, and divinity of your dearly beloved son our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world." In the distance, Paige could hear the sirens. Moan squeezed her hand, begging her to continue. Paige shakily obliged, unsure of whether or not she would make it through this.

"For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." She repeated the decade until she was sure she could hear the siren moments away. The hand in her grasp was slowly fading away. Paige could hear the heart beat against her chest waning.

"Mona you are the strongest person I have ever met, fight this. It is not your time to go. You have to grow up and go to college and fall in love and have children that are going to be just as smart as their momma…You can't die because there is a life out there that you deserve to live." She heard the door breaking in below her and loud voices coming in.

"Up here!" She screamed. "Up here!" She could hear the footsteps bounding up the stairs.

"They're here…okay? You did it." Paige began to remove herself but Mona's hand grasped tightly to her one last time. The paramedics came in with a backboard and Paige was forced to back away. They stabilized Mona on a board and placed began to carry her down the steps. Paige got up to follow but was caught by the third paramedic.

"Ma'am can I look at your injuries." Paige was ignoring him, trying to look over to where they were taking her.

"Ma'am the blood on your clothes." Paige looked down. She was completely soaked in red stain. She didn't know what of it was from herself and what was from Mona. She started to palpate her arms and head, trying to see if any of it was hers. There was a large gash on her forehead that she assumed was from the glass. All of a sudden, she got slightly light headed and collapsed into the paramedics shoulder.

"We are going to need another bus?" He screamed down to the paramedics below. One got on a radio and signaled for another ambulance to come in. The man helped Paige onto the ground and she tried to focus again. The adrenaline of the situation was warring out. As she closed her eyes, she saw another group of men bringing up the same bright orange back board. She felt hands lifting her onto it and strapping in the buckles. It was still dark to her and she knew she had hit the outside when the heat and light hit her skin. She used the last of her energy to open her eyes and look into the eyes of the paramedic.

"Ma'am we are going to get you to the hospital as soon as possible. Your friend has already left. Who can we call for you?" She was about to answer when she heard a familiar scream.

"Paige!" Outside of the barrier that the police had just put up, Emily, Hanna and Spencer were gathered. At first, they had only thought it was Mona in the house. As soon as they saw the other brunette being carried out, they tried to break through the barrier.

"Please, that's my girlfriend. Please." The sympathetic police officer let them through. Paige was being placed onto the gurney and they were starting to load her into the second ambulance. Paige could not open her eyes but she could hear the frantic footsteps of multiple people.

"What happened?" She looked over Paige and nearly screamed at the sight of all the blood.

"What happened?!" She repeated.

"Ma'am we don't know the situation. We are trying to get your girlfriend here to the hospital to get checked out. We will know more when we get there. Is there someone we can call for her?"

"Her parents are out of town."

"Does she have any other next of kin here?"

"I don't think so. Both of her parents are only children and all of her grandparents are dead. I don't know." Spencer put a hand on Emily's shoulder and took the lead on talking.

"Emily's mother knows all of Paige's medical information. She can act as a medical power of attorney until her parents can be reached." The paramedic agreed and they pushed Paige into the ambulance.

"I'm coming with you." Emily said firmly.

"Ma'am unless you are an immediate relative I cannot permit that."

"Please." She pleaded.

"Every minute we waste arguing is another minute we can't treat her. You can see her after a doctor has been with her." The man closed the doors and Emily tried to fight and go after but Spencer firmly held her back. Hanna was completely silent, still stunned by the condition of both Paige and Mona. The police officer pulled all three girls back behind the barrier. As they turned to go to their car, they were met by Allison.

"What happened?" She asked walking towards them. Hanna was about to snap but Emily beat her to it. She broke away from Spencer's grasp and marched over towards the girl. Without warning, she placed a hard hit right across her jaw.

"What did you do?!" She screamed. Spencer gained her composure back and grabbed Emily before more could happen. Allison held her jaw, hunched over.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I am talking about. I swear to God if Paige or Mona don't make it through this, I will bring this all down on you like revelations. Think over your next moves, Ali because this is over."

Emily pushed out of Spencer's arms and got into her car.

"I didn't do anything." Allison defended. Spencer walked away, knowing that she needed to be a level head for Emily. Allison looked to Hanna for sympathy but she found none.

"Han…" Hanna put her hand up and began to walk away.

"This is what I get for everything I've done for you!" Hanna shook her head, not believing that Allison could make this about her. She turned to say something but decided to walk away.

"Run away, then." At this Hanna broke, she took one step back and turned to land her fist straight into the girls nose. Allison collapsed on her knees, clutching her face in pain, once again. Hanna knelt down to her level and put her thumb and forefinger over Allison's nose, squeezing it.

"If you think this hurts, wait to see what happens if either of those girls die. You might not be afraid of Emily but don't forget what I am capable of." She stood up and walked to the car, feigning as much confidence as she could.

**TBC**


End file.
